Prog Chefs Unite!!!

Atavachron wrote: love corned beef, it has to be fatty other wise it's bland and dry-  do you do it in beer with veggies and cloves?

I've not done one in beer (the would require a lot of beer!).  I used a variety of seasonings, but no veggies.  Perhaps I will try this method next time.  Sounds delicious either way.

A surprise impromptu marinade:

Beer, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, McCorkmick's Montreal chicken spice, teriyaki sauce, red wine vingegar, and olive oil.



Let's see what happens after it hits the grill and then hits our plates. 

Just me liver.  

Tonight, we're having chipotle pork ribs (baked in the oven because it rained like hell when I got home), and rice with sauteed onion and green pepper in it.

And Dos Equis. 

Bleeaaagghhhh.

But then I never really cared for pickled cucumbers.  I did try a bright green one at a deli on my first trip up to New York with my wife.  That was one tasty sucker.


Edited by Slartibartfast - January 13 2012 at 18:14

Epignosis wrote: I cannot legally drive.

I don't think I heard this story - PM please. 

Padraic wrote: Epignosis wrote: I cannot legally drive.  I don't think I heard this story - PM please.

A recipe from an old cookbook of mine:

COLD MIXED CUCUMBERS
A Simple Side Dish of Sliced, Seeded Cucumbers with a Light Sesame-flavored Dressing.

2 medium-size cucumbers

Preparation:
Cut ends from cucumbers. Peel and cut in half lengthwise, then scoop
out and discard the seeds. Cut across into ~-inch slices. Refrigerate.

Cold Seasoning Sauce
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon peanut oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Combine these ingredients, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved.  Add to chilled cucumbers. Mix well but lightly with hands to prevent bruising. Serve immediately, or chill in refrigerator 10 to 15 minutes, no longer.

Serving:
Transfer cucumbers and sauce to a serving bowl. Yield: one order, serving 4 as a side dish.

Comments:
This cold-mixed dish is apparently too simple to be served in restaurants. It is included here because of its ease in preparation and for the cool, refreshing flavor. It is a handy recipe to have to fill out a menu which may be lacking in fresh vegetables. The dish is best to serve alone, or as part of a variety of cold dishes served as an appetizer. It is equally good when made solely with peanut oil, omitting the sesame oil-a consideration when included on a menu with other sesame flavored dishes.

I've never had eggplant Parmesan, nor have I cooked it before.  But tonight, my eggplant Parmesan was perhaps one of the best things I've ever cooked.  I also created a recipe for a sauce tonight that my wife has deemed excellent, a sauce I should "not change at all."  I know I've hit a home run when we both find the dish incredible. 

I'm already looking forward to having it again (even if it requires quite a bit of prep time).

Also, eariler today I made cheese on toast for our lunch, using Heston Blumenthal's super stringy Cheese fondue recipe... what can I say? I've been making cheese sauce for years - thin for fish (and macaroni and cauliflower), thick for chicken cordon bleu, runny for Welsh rarebit - and have used the "tried and tested" method that everyone uses: make a rue using butter and flour, loosen with milk and then add the cheese and flavour with mustard.. simples. So the notion of using what is essentially standard fondue recipe (sorry Blumenthal, nothing unusual in your recipe really) for that seems unecessary - yet it works (and as he says, it's runny and stringy, not thick and stodgy) and it works marvelously well, so well infact I may even use it next time I cook chicken cordon bleu.

Dean wrote: This evening I attempted puerco pibil, the pork dish that Agent Sands obsessed over in Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon A Time In Mexico. I should qualify "attempted" here as annatto seeds (that give the dish its colour and contribute to the flavour) are pretty hard to come by in deepest darkest Hampshire - but being a resourceful cook, I substituted pimentón and a pinch of nutmeg and hoped for the best, (I should also add that the traditional banana leaves that the meat is wrapped in during cooking are also unavailable in the average British town - here substituting aluminium foil didn't seem too much of a gamble).

could you substitute a little saffron or saffron oil for the annatto?   can't think of a good banana leaf sub but I suppose any large, mildly flavored green leaves might work.