Food Thread - Obsidian Gormand's Edition

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Sauteed zucchini with a honey bourbon glaze. Not bad for being thrown together stuff I had to cook before it went bad, but probably not something I'd make unless I was trying to reduce meat and carb heavy foods. Which is unfortunately more common these days.

[ShadySands]

Steak and eggs for breakfast. Wife said it's the most American breakfast she's ever had.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Protein shake and a protein bar. I'm too tired to make anything but it's nice to have after morning cardio while I prep for the rest of the week. 

11 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Steak and eggs for breakfast. Wife said it's the most American breakfast she's ever had.

She's not wrong, though perhaps chicken fried steak and eggs may be more American. Or at least more Texan.

[Gromnir]

14 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Steak and eggs for breakfast. Wife said it's the most American breakfast she's ever had.

we got a suggestion for the next veteran's day.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

I made naan.

It won't win any awards for presentation but who cares, it's delicious.

Side-note: I always thought the most Murican breakfast was cold pizza.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Keyrock

[ShadySands]

Now I want chicken fried steak. Church's used to do them on Wednesday but not sure if that's still the deal. Yes, Church's Chicken is my chicken chain of choice.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

59 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Now I want chicken fried steak. Church's used to do them on Wednesday but not sure if that's still the deal. Yes, Church's Chicken is my chicken chain of choice.

Growing up chicken fried steak or cheese enchiladas were my choice of meal if I had a choice. There's just something truly great about a well made one that feels both nostalgic and like a very special treat. God damn now I want it too.

I think all the Church's closed down around here. Or moved into a gas station. I'm a Frenchy's guy myself.

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

I always thought the most Murican breakfast was cold pizza

A nona is going to drone strike your house for saying this.

Anyways I made a ragu with a very large dose of calabrian peppers with rigatoni and it was good. Maybe not bolognese good, but definitely one of the better weeknight meals I've made.

Edited July 25, 2023 by PK htiw klaw eriF

[Gromnir]

35 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Now I want chicken fried steak. Church's used to do them on Wednesday but not sure if that's still the deal. Yes, Church's Chicken is my chicken chain of choice.

chicken fried steak is literal the only recipe for which we use cube steak. our mother's swiss steak was... terrible. god rest her soul, but is no way to forgive what our mom did to swiss steak and we have never quite recovered from the trauma o' swiss steak nights. we mention 'cause o' the weird conflating terms-- "swiss" is the process to create cube steak but is also a tomato and cube steak recipe. swiss steak is called swiss steak 'cause you use cube steak and not 'cause o' switzerland origins. whatever. we rare have the patience to swiss meat for proper chicken fried steak. furthermore, we have never had an urge to try and make swiss steak as an adult, which also uses cube steak but is complete different than chicken fried steak. unnecessarily confusing.

chicken fried steak is one o' our go-to dutch oven recipes and the resulting pan dripping thyme gravy is 100% artery destroying goodness. however, we let our butcher swiss the meat.

'course when is as hot as it has been recent, we rare use the dutch oven.

good news is local tomatoes just beginning to hit ideal season and so for the next almost two months we will be eating tomato everything... but not swiss steak. curious, am understanding swiss steak didn't original call for tomatoes, but that is so not the point. today we did have a glorious tomato sandwich which involved homemade bread, oh-so-ez homemade mayo, salt, a sprinkle o' cream of tartar and fresh ground black pepper. bread were the most complicated part o' the sandwich and kinda unnecessary. we also made an all-purpose marinara as well as a similar-but-not-same chicago style pizza sauce which we risk offending the culinary gods by topping a detroit style pizza we plan on making tomorrow eve.   am risking our south-side credentials by admitting that when we make pizza at home, we almost always 'go detroit style 'cause is easier and we don't need any fancy equipment to get it right. 

we also picked up an armenian cucumber when we bought our tomatoes... just 'cause.  am gonna see how the cucumber works for tzatziki. we got a decent gyro meat knock-off recipe but is just an excuse to use tzatziki. ordinarily we use english cucumber for the yogurt-based sauce but we figured we would live dangerous and try armenian.  

HA! Good Fun!

 

[ShadySands]

I haven't tried to make it myself in at least 25 years, always such a major endeavor. I guess if someone else asked for it then I'd make it but I wouldn't try to make it for myself. Unfortunately, my wife is never going to ask for it and my son doesn't know it exists yet.

[Gromnir]

20 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I guess if someone else asked for it then I'd make it but I wouldn't try to make it for myself.

this is our problem. chicken fried steak is something we made a few times for family and friends, and most o' our acquaintances is midwesterners, californians or yankees o' some stripe. chicken fried steak is not something our friends and family is likely to have had more than once and chances are what they had weren't a particular good example o' the dish. our family experienced a pleasant kinda a shock when they realized how delicious were chicken fried steak, so now it is one o' the most common requests we get precise 'cause is not something they make for themselves or enjoy at a local restaurant. what family thought was chicken fried steak... wasn't. 

edit: most o' our family is not adventurous when it comes to menu selections. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited July 26, 2023 by Gromnir

[ShadySands]

20 hours ago, Gromnir said:

most o' our family is not adventurous when it comes to menu selections.

Same

It's a joke in our family now that people come to visit us just to try new foods.

 

[Gromnir]

have mentioned previous how we use the microwave instead o' parboiling taters for home fries, and we also use microwaves to speed up baking of russets or sweet potatoes. 

...

am gonna admit we learned how am having been using the microwave to soften butter all wrong. old dog. new tricks.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

Crab rangoon and sha cha chicken from my local chinese food restaurant. It's too hot to cook. This week started out hot and it's been getting steadily hotter. It's going to be worse tomorrow and Saturday. My AC is struggling to keep up running 24/7. No ****ing way I'm turning on the oven or stove top.

[Keyrock]

Mushroom risotto.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Chicken marsala with polenta. Not very healthy but it was worth it.

[ShadySands]

Baked potatsi

[Keyrock]

Mrouzia

I bought some Ras El Hanout just to make this. Worth!

Side-note: I have determined that prunes are the Reuben of fruit. I don't often eat Reubens, mainly because they're just more work to make than many other sandwiches. However, when I have a Reuben I think, that's really good, I should have a Reuben more often. Similarly, I don't eat prunes often. I bought some for this recipe specifically and I had some prunes just by themselves and thought, this is really good, I should eat prunes more often.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Keyrock

[BruceVC]

https://foxcroft.restaurant/foxcroft-menu

It was my sisters 33rd birthday and we went  to this restaurant called Foxcroft yesterday, its basically a fine dining restaurant that focuses on deconstructive meals. You have to order from a set 4 course meal with 2 choices. I ordered 

 

• Crispy Mushroom :Berbere, braised ****ake, cep cream, chevre, teff crisp

• Dry Aged Beef:Sunchoke, smoked garlic, snails, beef fat Bordelaise

• Coal-roasted Linefish: Tomatillo, anejo mussels, salsa roja, tostada, ancho-corn broth

• Lime Cheesecake: Miso, yuzu, lime biscuit, litchi, elderflower

The ingredients are all seasonal and each course was delicious and looked incredible as the gastronomic visual experience is part of  design of this type of food and I had a whole bottle of red wine to myself which always enhances a meal 

But the portions are small and I was hungry 2 hours after getting home and thats why I prefer a single large meal, like ribs or bowl of pasta , and maybe a starter then this type of food choice. Its okay maybe every 7th or so option  when you go to restaurant but definitely not all the time 

And its great to impress a date 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by BruceVC

[Gromnir]

am finding prunes is an underutilized method for adding sweetness or cutting down on acidity in meat dishes. prunes qualifies as a Gromnir pantry staple seeing as how prunes has a decent long shelf life and the frequency with which we use 'em.

one o' our favorite prune recipes:

the only downside to snacking on prunes as 'posed to using as an ingredient is the sticky factor. we could cut prunes into small pieces and then eat with a utensil, but doing so results in additional cleaning and fork-and-knife a prune just seems kinda pretensions. sticky fingers means am unlikely to eat prunes while simultaneous doing other tasks, which cuts down on their utility. 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

Your prune tip has benefited most everyone I've ever made any kind of roast for. I made a Mi'sippi pot roast last week with prunes and my family that was in town thought it was just about the best thing they'd ever had.

I made Bolognese 

Edited August 14, 2023 by ShadySands

[Gfted1]

@ShadySands Whats your Mississippi pot roast recipe with prunes?

[ShadySands]

Pretty much any recipe you find on the interwebs will do

Like this. The basic ingredients are just meat, Ranch dressing seasoning, butter, pepperoncini, and au jus/onion soup/gravy mix then just throw in a handful of prunes. Not all recipes call for it but I strongly suggest you sear the meat before cooking.

Then you can either pick the prunes out or leave them in and shred them with the meat, which is what I do.

[Gfted1]

29 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

...then just throw in a handful of prunes.

Thanks. We make the "regular" Mississippi pot roast but I wasnt sure it the prunes were an addition, or replacement, for something.

[Gromnir]

19 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Your prune tip has benefited most everyone I've ever made any kind of roast for. 

 

on the downside, am no longer able to identify our lonesome as the only person we know who adds prunes when braising meat.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

I'm going to experiment a bit. I'm going to start with the mrouzia recipe I just used and I'm going to alter it some. instead of lamb I'm going to use beef, I've got it marinating in the spices (mostly ras el hanout) right now. I'm going to add pineapple and some apricots (because I happen to have some on hand) and I will dial back the amount of honey a bit since the pineapple should provide plenty of sweetness. Plus I'm going to add potatoes because the mrouzia I made seemed like it could have benefited from something starchy. I don't know what to call it since mrouzia is explicitly a lamb dish and there will be no lamb this time. I'll wind up cooking it tomorrow, maybe I'll have an inspiration for a name between now and then. Hopefully it's edible.