Food Thread - Obsidian Gormand's Edition

[Gfted1]

Oh yeah, typo, I meant prunes. Ill pick some up next time we cook it.

[Fionavar]

Enjoyed a brisk walk with the dogs in the dog park. Sunset was phenomenal! 

[ShadySands]

Shrimp was on sale so two nights ago I had jambalaya with andouille sausage and shrimp and last night I had orzo with shrimp. 

Now to figure out a meal for tonight that doesn't include shrimp since I'm out and my wife is tired of it.

[Gromnir]

16 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Shrimp was on sale so two nights ago I had jambalaya with andouille sausage and shrimp and last night I had orzo with shrimp. 

Now to figure out a meal for tonight that doesn't include shrimp since I'm out and my wife is tired of it.

tired of shrimp? am s'posing such a thing is possible.

admitted, am preferring monk fish in most recipes which call for shrimp, but such don't mean am disliking shrimp.

our current ez goto recipe is chicken "curry" served over basmati rice and incorporating whatever veggies we got on hand. is maybe not traditional or authentic curry but our house smells like an indian restaurant during and after cooking, so am calling it curry.

sear chicken thighs in olive oil in a dutch oven 'cause we have olive oil.

remove thighs and then add a simple veg base o' food processor'd onion, fresh ginger and garlic to the hot pot and scrape up the chicken fond.

am using all pre ground spices (sue us) a bit o' tomato puree and coconut milk or heavy cream which is added to the pot in that order. we let the spices bloom even if they is pre ground.

am returning our now diced chicken and chicken liquid to the pot plus whatever veggies we gut and then cook on medium and covered for 4ish minutes... or however long the veggies and chicken require.

we plate up the curry over rice and top with cilantro and a squeeze o' lime juice.

am adding salt in smaller amounts at multiple steps which decreases the likelihood we oversalt.

total time for prep and cook is 'bout twenty minutes. 'tween caring for the unwell dog, plus our sprained knee and the busted rib we acquired a couple weeks past, twenty minutes is kinda pushing the envelope on the time am willing to devote to cooking. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 13, 2023 by Gromnir

[Gfted1]

Im not a huge fan of shrimp, or lobster tail, I dont care for the texture. I wont turn it away but its not my go-to choice either.

[Gromnir]

7 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Im not a huge fan of shrimp, or lobster tail, I dont care for the texture. I wont turn it away but its not my go-to choice either.

pre 20th century, lobster were used to feed prisoners, slaves and indentured servants. as often as not, lobster were used as fertilizer as 'posed to food. were common for new englanders who worked under contract to have their deals stipulate that they would be fed shellfish no more than 2x a week. 

times change. tastes change.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Hurlshort]

I've had some pretty good crab, but lobster has never appealed to me. I mean, it's really just the butter that people seem to love.

edit: Of course, being a West Coast lifer, I've probably never had a chance to eat lobster fresh.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Hurlshort

[ShadySands]

I love crab and shrimp but I don't like lobster at all. 

Tonight I made steak hard J fajitas

[Gorth]

3 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I love crab and shrimp but I don't like lobster at all. 

Tonight I made steak hard J fajitas

I thought a lobster was just a giant shrimp

 

[Gromnir]

33 minutes ago, Gorth said:

I thought a lobster was just a giant crawfish 

 

fixed.

admitted as a northerner we typical says crayfish, but for culinary purposes, crawfish makes the most sense given the creole and cajun influence on most recipes including the crustacean. crawfish gumbo. yum.

aside: we don't much like okra so we lean heavily on roux and file powder.

edit: the sacramento crawfish and catfish food and music festival is happening in february, which is odd 'cause it were in september last year. didn't go last year 'cause we had been to farm to fork early september and then some rl stuff happened. am not having a great creole repertoire, so am hoping to pick up a few ideas from festival attendance.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 14, 2023 by Gromnir

[Bartimaeus]

It should be illegal to get tired of shrimp; Bubba speaks my language.

On 1/13/2023 at 4:32 AM, Gromnir said:

admitted, am preferring monk fish in most recipes which call for shrimp, but such don't mean am disliking shrimp.

I wasn't sure if I was familiar with the monkfish or not.

I have to tell you, this creature's existence looks incredibly tortured...for everyone else that lays eyes on them.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

It should be illegal to get tired of shrimp; Bubba speaks my language.

How naughty

I didn't like shrimp too much growing up because my mom had a tendency to underseason and overcook so they tasted terribly. Now I love shrimp and eat them regularly (especially shrimp and grits), but I would rather not eat my mom's boiled shrimp ever again.

For my money crawfish are the best seafood, especially tossed in some garlic butter Viet-Cajun style. Boil them in some heavily seasoned spicy water and then hit them with some garlic butter to bring out the flavor in the spice. I love having a few pounds of them and sweating like a damn pig as my body gets bombarded with spicy goodness. Maybe if lobster was cooked like that instead of just in salt I'd like it better, but imo lobster is overrated and I'd prefer a steak instead for the price.

But the worst seafood for me is probably scallops. I despise the texture and it ruins them for me. Not usually a fan of squid or octopus either, but that probably has more to do with me being freaked out by tentacles than the food itself.

[Bartimaeus]

I don't think there's any kind of cooked seafood that I've ever said no to...even scallops and octopus, both of which are admittedly kind of weird. Served raw, on the other hand, such as with sashimi? Nope, never gonna touch the stuff.

[Keyrock]

When it comes to seafood I'm all about the eel. Tuna is great, tilapia is good, as is crawfish. I can get down on shrimp and crab. Lobster is whatever, I'd never order it, but if you put a plate of it in front of me I'd eat it. Scallops and oysters go in the trash, where they belong. I don't think I've ever had octopus.

[ShadySands]

I love scallops but have never had octopus or eel that I've enjoyed. Squid, I could go either way depending on how it's prepared. I've only had cuttlefish fish in a squid ink pasta and I liked it at first but then it became too much. I love raw oysters and I make a pretty mean pot of mussels with cream and wheat beer.

Not that big on crawfish because those little ****s used to bite the crap out of me when I'd go into some of our favorite childhood swimming holes and I hold a grudge.

Pretty sure I've never had jellyfish, shark, or any sea mammal.

 

Final edit, I had scrambled eggs with ajika for brunch. My wife says I like my scrambled eggs weird because I crack the eggs into the pan and let them cook for a while before giving them a quick scramble. She likes to mix them before cooking, which I do for her, but I just like my eggs not perfectly mixed and also I like them slightly drier because I'm pretty much always eating them with a sauce.

Edited January 14, 2023 by ShadySands

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

oysters go in the trash

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

Final edit, I had scrambled eggs with ajika for brunch. My wife says I like my scrambled eggs weird because I crack the eggs into the pan and let them cook for a while before giving them a quick scramble. She likes to mix them before cooking, which I do for her, but I just like my eggs not perfectly mixed and also I like them slightly drier because I'm pretty much always eating them with a sauce.

I can't stand eggs that are runny, but I also don't feel like bothering with scrambled eggs, so what I do is basically dump the egg(s) into the pan, immediately crush the yolk so it all flattens out, then flip the entire thing over as soon as the fried side has become solid and do it again on the other side, done. It's very lazy, but it's also very easy and I really don't care as long as the eggs are neither overcooked or runny, so it works for me.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't think there's any kind of cooked seafood that I've ever said no to...even scallops and octopus, both of which are admittedly kind of weird. Served raw, on the other hand, such as with sashimi? Nope, never gonna touch the stuff.

Sashimi and ceviche are both great though. Stop being naughty.

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

oysters go in the trash, where they belong

[Keyrock]

12 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

 

 

Just now, Space KP, Baby said:

 

I regret nothing.

[Bartimaeus]

13 minutes ago, Space KP, Baby said:

Sashimi and ceviche are both great though. Stop being naughty.

Mexican ceviche is so good you can even forget to put meat in it entirely and it's still great. I mean, it's basically just big mode salsa at that point, but it is still great. ...I have to be honest though, I have eaten shrimp in ceviche and it is really good. Authentic (i.e. Peruvian) ceviche, on the other hand...I'm not going to touch that one.

As for sashimi, I have pretty much zero appreciation for authentic Japanese cuisine as a whole, so I really don't care, . Any time I look at Japanese cuisine, it's always like...please give me any other east Asian cuisine - Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Korean, I don't care, just not Japanese please and thank you.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

Sashimi is fine but when I go to a sushi place I usually get unagi temaki because I love me some eel.

I'll occasionally get tuna sashimi, though.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Keyrock

[ShadySands]

If I were a rich man with more disposable income then I could see myself eating sushi seven days a week.

[majestic]

Dry eggs are a slippery slope guys, stop paying attention and you'll wake up eating well done steaks some day. Just say no to dry eggs, and embrace the warm and wonderful runny, gooey goodness.

58 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

As for sashimi, I have pretty much zero appreciation for authentic Japanese cuisine as a whole, so I really don't care, . Any time I look at Japanese cuisine, it's always like...please give me any other east Asian cuisine - Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Korean, I don't care, just not Japanese please and thank you.

You could try to get a Japanese snack box. There's a pack with all sorts of KitKat flavors that apparently sprang from the mad mind of someone who stopped experimenting on prisoners of war after World War 2 and picked up candy creation.

No, you don't want to know what all that is. Really.

All those wonderful flavors. Sake, wasabi, maccha (matcha) tea, houjicha (green tea leaves roasted over charcoal), red bean paste sandwich?

As for seafood - curiously enough, it's the other way around. I enjoy shrimp sashimi, but most cooked seafood - including shrimp - is nigh uneatable. It's not the taste, but the texture much of it gets by cooking. Outside of (most) fish as long as it is not overcooked, eating it is so unpleasant that I just can't. It's the same thing that makes many mushrooms impossible for me to eat, never mind something that always seems to have an overly chewy texture, like octopus.

[ShadySands]

3 minutes ago, majestic said:

Dry eggs are a slippery slope guys, stop paying attention and you'll wake up eating well done steaks some day.

Only for scrambled, I mostly eat my eggs over easy. Well done steaks? Thems fightin' words.

[Gromnir]

4 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Not that big on crawfish because those little ****s used to bite the crap out of me when I'd go into some of our favorite childhood swimming holes and I hold a grudge.

Pretty sure I've never had jellyfish, shark, or any sea mammal.

have never been bitten by a crawfish. have been pinched more than a few times. do crawfish have teeth? some kinda mandible?

and shark... am not too proud to admit am terrified o' sharks. more than once when surfing we felt something large graze against our leg in the water and we likely pee'd our self a small bit in those moments. see a flash o' silver in the water and it might be a school o' fish, or...

am personal finding shark delicious (at least every variety we has tried thus far) and is perhaps more enjoyment in knowing that in spite o' the terror they inspire on us, we have eaten far more o' them than they has dined on us. shark is decided less scary on a dinner plate with a lemon wedge.

monkfish is 'bout 2/3 head; only the tail and cheeks is usable. the fish is delicious and easy to clean as is only one "bone." all the skin, skull and spine does make for fantastic fish stock, but making fish stock will make your house stink and is maybe not worth the effort unless you got a fancy outdoor grill and a stockpot you don't mind making a dedicated grill vessel. regardless, monkfish is ez in our top five seafood choices. admitted, have never bothered to check its sustainability.

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

1 hour ago, Gromnir said:

have never been bitten by a crawfish. have been pinched more than a few times. do crawfish have teeth? some kinda mandible?

Pinch is correct. I'm playing fast and loose with my terminology. 

I can still hear my aunt's voice saying they wouldn't hurt us and even if they did pinch us then it wouldn't hurt. Lies. On all counts.