Food Thread - Obsidian Gormand's Edition

[LadyCrimson]

Sigh. My dear Gromnir, a solution that works for some is not a solution that always works for all.Whether the reasons are physical, financial, emotional, whatever, the point is that rarely is a solution universal. I do appreciate the suggestion, and I acknowledge it's a sound and reasonable suggestion on a purely Spock like logical level.

But giving you a long winded unnecessary explanation you don't want to hear, our freezer is typically chock full with bulk frozen raw and cooked meat and veggies, as well as hubby's many bags of sandwich bread rolls, and other things, and we do not even have ice cube trays in the freezer.

So then one can say ... "just get another freezer." Which I've thought of in past years, but we haven't done yet and at the moment our garage is so floor-space filled with hubby's moving process stuff that it's going to take me a couple years to hem and haw him into unpacking and organizing, and ... well, you don't want to hear it anyway.

So, good suggestion, and I may use it one day, but at the moment, it's not a solution, just for regular  consumption of watermelon flavored water ... for me.

Edited May 11, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Gromnir]

27 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

So then one can say ... "just get another freezer."

is doubtful anybody would say such, but knock yourself out with the imagining o' what would be a response nobody offers.

regardless, the manufactured obstacles is hardly noteworthy. if you cannot fit anything in your electric powered cooling devices, then you are indeed beyond helping, but it sure seems unlikely. 'cause is frozen cubes o' puree, in a bag, is not requiring much space in your chosen chiller appliance. am not even gonna try and guess your "emotional" hurdles to making minimal space in a freezer, but am not doubting such exist.

buy a small seedless melon and eat some o' the watermelon, freeze a bit o' the puree and use rind for pickles. your previous concerns 'bout spoilage is addressed and the solution(s) result in is almost no waste. 

*shrug*

regardless, no doubt for lc the "physical, financial, emotional" burdens o' melon usage is immeasurable. finding a way to add watermelon to drinks, which is something you says you like, is emotionally taxing in ways indescribable. we do not whish to make light o' what is clear simultaneous ineffable and elegiac. as such am apologizing for making light o' what is clear an incapacitating problem.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

Y'know, just to be contrary, I don't recall asking for a "solution" in the first place, outside of maybe suggestions for other things to try besides the ones I mentioned.

I also don't really understand why you (even if it's rare) even bother to reply to anything I post, since you almost always seem to find a reason to dislike what I reply back, or my stylings, or whatever it is. If you know or believe that's likely to occur, why bother. Just ignore me entirely, 100% of the time.

*shrug* right back. 

[Gromnir]

9 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

Y'know, just to be contrary,

we could stop right there, 'cause seemed to answer our previous questions.

13 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

I also don't really understand why you (even if it's rare) even bother to reply to anything I post, since you almost always seem to find a reason to dislike what I reply back, or my stylings, or whatever it is. If you know or believe that's likely to occur, why bother. Just ignore me entirely, 100% of the time.

are you going for comedic irony?

btw, please note our initial reply were general advice applicable to anybody who wished to make use o' melon in ways less common. 

regardless, as you are no longer even pretending to discuss your personal and curious food and drink road to perdition...

*eye roll*

aside, for our younger relatives, we also make watermelon roll-ups (or fruit leather,) which is easier than one might suspect. when we suggested juicing watermelon and then freezing, the solids need not be discarded. combine the watermelon solids with a bit o' sugar and lime juice and then spread onto a lightly greased baking sheet. place the baking sheet with the thin layer o' watermelon goo into a 170 degree oven and after two-to-three hours the watermelon will be dried enough such that it is no longer sticky/tacky. cut the "leather" into strips and roll.

btw, the rolls require little storage space. 

just  doing our part to bring the thread back on-topic.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

Sometimes I just want comfort food and it doesn't get much more comforting than beef stew.

Easy and inexpensive to make and delicious, who could ask for anything more?

[Gromnir]

3 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Sometimes I just want comfort food and it doesn't get much more comforting than beef stew.

Easy and inexpensive to make and delicious, who could ask for anything more?

hmmm.

maybe am doing it different 'cause am admitting our beef stew, while inexpensive, is not trending towards our easier dishes. our beef stew technique is much like our pot roast with only a few changes and similar it is best a day after resting in the fridge. am also tending towards less fluid but am s'posing such is a matter o' taste. 

have actual needed change or beef stew recipe a bit over the years as am far less likely to have homemade beef stock on hand. is increasing rare we make many meals which result in leftover beef bones suitable for making stock. better than bouillon is a good way to punch up store bought stock, but am just as likely to use our homemade chicken stock and then supplement with a few umami sources such as tomato paste, soy sauce and worchestershire sauce. am also common adding dark beer to our stewing liquid... or not. is usual a gameday decision. regardless, with homemade stock we do not need add as much flour to our meat or powdered gelatin to the stock to get a nice thick liquid. 

even so, making stew is a relative labor intensive and multistep process in which we assemble our stewing liquid, brown meats, then brown vegetables. positive: we have found frozen pearl onions work perfect fine btw, so no more hand peeling. am also now browning our beef chunks not in our dutch oven on the stovetop but rather in the oven on a sheet pan. brown the meat in the oven means we don't need worry 'bout over crowding and steaming the meat as 'posed to genuine browning. we also have separate stewing/braising vegetables 'cause the long stew renders the veggies almost tasteless; we remove the stewing veggies during the last hour of cooking and then return our browned veggies and some yukon gold potatoes to the stew mix for the last hour of cooking. during the last hour in the oven we "stew" uncovered to reduce a bit and also to add additional browning.

before letting cool and refrigerating, we also simmer and stir on the stove top for a couple minutes as doing so will incorporate the surface browning as well as effective remove the oily sheen from the top layer o' the stew. 

edit: next day, when we reheat, we will finish with a couple handfuls o' frozen peas... 'cause.

am suspecting if our stew were a bit easier, we would have it more frequent, which might not be good for our health. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 27, 2023 by Gromnir

[Keyrock]

Beef stew is super easy. I brown the beef in a skillet, drain most of the grease, then the beef, potatoes, carrots, celery, water, and spices go into a crock pot (these days I use a pressure cooker in slow cooker mode, same difference). Then I Ron Popeil set it and forget it (I'm really dating myself with that reference) and roughly 4 hours later I have a big ol' pot of delicious. The only extra step is adding some corn starch or flour with roughly 30 minutes to go to thicken. I usually go with corn starch but I ran out and had to resort to flour this time around. Even if I forgot the thickening step, my pressure cooker goes into keep warm mode automatically when the cooking time finishes, I could always add the corn starch or flour slurry then and just leave it on keep warm for a half hour. It's pretty fool proof, even if I left the house and the stew sat there for an extra hour or three in keep warm mode, great. It's almost impossible to screw up.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Keyrock

[Gromnir]

aside: most home cooks is aware cornstarch does not thicken cold sauces/liquids. what gets overlooked is that cornstarch loses efficacy as a thickener once your stew (or whatever) cools. luckily with stew the gelatin from the connective tissue in the meat should thicken your sauce after it has cooled, so what you lose from the cornstarch you likely gain from the gelatin from the meat. potato starch also suffers from the same cooling problem as cornstarch. nevertheless, for any large quantity recipe which is gonna see significant quantities refrigerated after the initial preparation, flour is likely a better choice than cornstarch as a thickener. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Keyrock]

Another great thing about beef stew, and this is true for a lot of soups, it's even better today, after it sat in the fridge overnight.

[ShadySands]

Marinating some meat for some skewers for a cookout tomorrow.

[Keyrock]

Pizza with bacon, red onion, red bell pepper, and serano pepper.

Less spicy than I expected. Nothing some hot sauce can't fix. Still, I'll use more seranos next time. The red bell pepper and red onion give it a slight bit of sweetness that works well with the salty bacon. I'm glad I didn't cheap out and buy the more bitter green bell peppers.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

Gołąbki

I normally do 50/50 ground beef and pork, but the store didn't have ground pork and I was too lazy to go to another store so it's beef and lamb.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Glazed pork chops, roasted broccoli, and agave roasted carrots.

Broccoli was the weak link by a longshot, should have added some Pecorino Romano and some lemon zest instead of dried herbs, but I was tired and didn't have the cheese. Agave on carrots works better than honey, and I will fite anyone irl over this, but next time I'll add some heat to them. Pork was cooked perfectly thanks to a quick brine and the glaze was on point.

[ShadySands]

 

[Gromnir]

made french onion dip. the thing is, as we collected ingredients, we discovered we only had half of a good yellow onion due to a bad spot as well as a bunch o' red onions. figured the taste o' the reduced onion slurry wouldn't be much different with red onion as opposed to yellow, but did have concerns regarding the eventual color o' the dip.

we will not be using red onion in the future to substitute when making french onion dip. the onions took on a bilious shade o' purple as 'posed to dark golden brown. is nothing wrong with the taste, but am suspecting when the mixture cools and we add mayo, sour cream, garlic powder and white pepper to finish, the hue o' the dip will be... disconcerting.

oh well. live and learn.

edit: ok, we didn't expect that outcome. once we added sour cream, mayo, garlic powder and white pepper, the fugly purple-yellow disappeared almost complete. looks fine. tastes great. will be better tomorrow.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Gromnir

[Keyrock]

Zupa Szczawiowa 

[ShadySands]

Grilled.

Made some chicken thighs with a white BBQ sauce but finished it with red sauce that I splashed some citrus into. Beef ribs with a dry rub in the pressure cooker because I don't have all day and finished on the grill with a brown sugar honey BBQ sauce. Corn on the cob also made a brief appearance. 

I thought I was making enough for at least 2 days but there are almost no leftovers

Edited July 13, 2023 by ShadySands

[Gromnir]

'bout five days past we made a big batch o' our ez insta pot carnitas as well as a significant portion o' texas red chill. is no more snow peas from the local farm and we just didn't have a hankering for more corn at the moment, so instead we bought a fair amount o' broccoli and spinach from a sooper market figuring we could make a bunch a salads and perhaps steam the broccoli as needed. we also have quarts o' a variety o' frozen soup which could be defrosted at need. given the temperatures this past week (the high today will be 110F and will maybe get down into mid 70s overnight,) we didn't wanna do any cooking other than microwave.

nevertheless, am having gone to the fridge a half dozen times today as if expecting something new to appear 'cause we don't want anything we got and we can't bring our self to cook. tired o' salads. everything we wanna do with the remaining carnitas involves additional cooking. the chili mysterious disappeared. gremlins. musta been gremlins who ate enough chili to feed a battalion. etc.

we do have an impressive stack o' homemade watermelon popsicles in our freezer. to make we combined, pureed and froze watermelon, lime juice as well as a bit o' sugar and mint 'cause the early season watermelon were kinda meh. as such am functional doing an experiment to see if am able to survive on popsicles for the next two days. 

...

anybody recall the miniseries, the pacific?

Spoiler

is quite possible we end up like runner (the guy squatting over the log) by monday eve.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

I've been craving kimchi tacos so I'm making that. Super sick though so I doubt it'll match the flavor I'm searching for.

[Keyrock]

I've been on a nuts kick (phrasing). Not cajun flavored or honey roasted or any type of roasted or even salted. Just raw nuts. Currently I'm eating macadamia nuts. They're quite delicious all on their own.

[Gfted1]

I love (salted) nuts. I go through one of these about every 2 weeks: Great Value Mixed Nuts with Peanuts, 27 oz - Walmart.com

[Keyrock]

17 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

I love (salted) nuts. I go through one of these about every 2 weeks: Great Value Mixed Nuts with Peanuts, 27 oz - Walmart.com

Salted is fine, at least it's not glazed with a bunch of sugar, but I follow the teachings of the late great Ol' Dirty Bastard:

 

[ShadySands]

Beef bulgogi, caramelized kimchi, cilantro, carrots, jalapeno, red and green onions, and drizzled with a lime Sriracha mayo.

Sorry, didn't plate or photograph that well

E: thanks, now that song is in my head 

Edited July 20, 2023 by ShadySands

[Hurlshort]

My daughter made pozole for my family, who were visiting from Georgia. She made it super hot, so we all sat around fanning ourselves. They all finished it though, so it was definitely a good burn.

It was a green pozole with chicken. 

[Gromnir]

On 7/20/2023 at 12:43 PM, Hurlshort said:

My daughter made pozole for my family, who were visiting from Georgia. She made it super hot, so we all sat around fanning ourselves. They all finished it though, so it was definitely a good burn.

It was a green pozole with chicken. 

the poblanos and jalapeños in a pazole is gonna tend towards mildness particular as the peppers gets cooked down a bit. did your daughter leave the seeds in the peppers? that would explain unusual heat from usual tame green pozole.

'course sometimes peppers is unnatural hot, particular if they is homegrown. if you pull the jalapeños off the plant from your backyard, you could end up with heat far beyond expectations. from jacques pépin we learned it is always best to taste a tiny bit o' each jalapeño, serrano or whatever 'cause is not as if peppers have uniform heat.

on the positive side, now you got a family story which is more likely to endure. am recalling a family thanksgiving when a turkey took an improbable amount of time to reach correct temp. at the time our mom were kinda mortified waiting on the bird to reach safe internal temp... and she didn't even stuff the turkey which is an ordinary culprit o' prolonged cooking time. guests made jokes as the cooking stretched on and on and on and mom died a little bit every time she checked the bird for doneness. particular for mom the evening were not amusing, but years removed...

in any event, sounds like your family enjoyed themselves and the meal, so all's good.

HA! Good Fun!