Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

Last weekend, I found one of Chef John's new posts, where he did a 'Green Gazpacho'; I thought it might be interesting to those of you who have gardens and access to lots of fresh herbs – it looks like a delightful Summer first course, or accompaniment to a light sandwich for lunch.

On his blog, the Chef says that he wanted to call it “Burrata in a Swamp,”; but he says that the 'swamp' bit didn't pass the 'wife test' – so, Green Gazpacho it is. Here is his video of technique, and the ingredients and measurements are on his blog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XpRlm45AeU

Burrata cheese is something that I wasn't familiar with, and am not sure that I can find in our local stores; but if you're up for a project, here are instructions on making your own (I'm thinking you could just put a little scoop of fresh mozzarella in, or even a bit of Boursin; but I know that there are some experimentalists among us :-):

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2014/04/29/you-can-totally-do-this-how-to-make-burrata/

We usually make all-meat chili using the Wick Fowler's mix; but last weekend we didn't have any, so we tried making our own from scratch. We used this recipe, to which my 'hot peppa' husband added more chili powder, and cayenne:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/no-bean-chili

I thought it was very good, but my husband thought it was missing something (of course, being on the low-carb thing, we didn't use Masa.)

I'm wondering if Freepers have any good chili recipes to share - just basic, no contest secrets required, and Masa and beans are OK - but No Fights! over what constitutes 'Real Chili' (which can get as contentious as politics :-)

-JT

[stylecouncilor]

Might be good with ground turkey too!

[greeneyes]

Here's a simple little recipe for chili. I use it as a basis for all sorts of chili recipes. I cook it in the oven in a big stainless steel pan (restaurant size and grade). After it has cooled. I cut it into sections (chili bricks) of 10 and freeze them.

1 qt. tomato juice
3 onions
2 big spoons of lard
10 lbs burger meat
5 or 6 garlic buttons/cloves
3/4 cup paprika
3/4 cup chili powder

Saute the onions in the lard till tender. Add everything together except the chili powder. Bake in the oven for 3 hrs. 300 - 350 degrees. Add chili powder, and cook another 20 minutes. Then take the pan out and let it cool, cut, wrap and freeze.

This is good as is just add half a cup of beans to half a cup of chili in a bowl. Throw in some crackers, and fresh onions, cheese, sour cream whatever.

Some times, I take a brick out of the freezer and put it into the crock pot, add some chili beans, or kidney beans, and a can of stewed tomatoes, or tomato sauce, green peppers, or hot peppers. Some times I like thick chili, and sometimes I like it to be like soup.

This also makes a pretty good chili Mac just spoon it over spaghetti.

[SkyDancer]

I like slow cooking - the flavors develop over time. I remember my grannie slow cooking over a stove the whole day and when whatever it was was served it was heavenly.

[Liz]

Even though I love cooking and think nothing of cooking a dish all day,
I developed this instant chili when the crave got real bad. Good when you want chili NOW.

LIZ'S INSTANT CHILI
Saute a pkg of Hanover brand frozen chp onions/peppers (Hanover is the
brand some restaurants use). Add can enchilada sauce, can of Hunts petite
diced chili-ready tomatoes, some hot sauce. At the end add some
Hormel beef au jus chopped or shredded.

SERVE w/ fritos, cheddar or pepperjack cubes; sour cream topping, a squeeze of lime.

NOTE The Hormel beef au jus is a good product. Find it in the refrigerator
case. Nice for chili, or make sliced beef sandwiches. Even good for instant
soup b/c it comes packaged in beef juices....just add a can of Le Seur
baby carrots, green beans, can of chp tomatoes.

[greeneyes]

Since I reset my taste buds, the salt in the Tomato juice is enough for me, but if you need salt, I’d suggest adding it after it’s finished cooking to your taste.

[Jamestown1630]

Speaking of Turkey, I was hunting for something on the Cabelas website today, and found this recipe (didn’t know that they did recipes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le8In_XDCw4

-JT

[pugmama]

My husband and I really liked this gazpacho. I did not strain it as we like it to be chunky.

https://food52.com/recipes/18052-eleven-madison-park-s-strawberry-gazpacho

[Don W]

Yesterday was the hottest of the year so far, so we had beef vindaloo on a bed of white rice (beef stock instead of water) with a honking big green salad and french dressing.

Major yum!

[pugmama]

I also add some coffee to mine with the chocolate.Peanut butter -even better!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Ladies do not sweat, they glow.

And after re-shelving a couple hundred books today glow was dripping off me. :)

[Aliska]

A good crockpot will do almost as good a job but I sure like the oven method. Some things like casseroles I cook the regular way but they often taste better reheated the next day. I don’t remember anybody in the family cooking that way. Now I like my chuck roasts and tougher cuts better than my mom’s or grandmother’s, but I didn’t get onto it until I was retired.

[trisham]

It sounds delicious!

[trisham]

That sounds great!

[trisham]

I did 45 minutes on the treadmill this afternoon and was glowing up a storm. :)

[Jamestown1630]

I spent half my life working in Libraries, and know all about that ‘glow’ :-)

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

Excellent. I’m still a working person, but not long before retirement; and in the meantime, I like ‘instant’ stuff like this.

-JT

[PUGACHEV]

I use Knorr's Mi Arroz rice seasoning with Uncle Ben's rice, 1 Cup Rice, 2 Cups water, 1.5 Tbs butter and 1/2 Tps salt. After it is cooked, I add some chopped onions, maybe a few room-temperature green peas and a little cilantro as the rice is cooling. Adding those after cooking keeps them crisp, but a little exposure to the heat of the rice softens the onions. You can add a little Cayenne Pepper powder to the rice before cooking to spice it up. The red-orange color in Mexican rice is imparted by a small pinch of Annatto powder, which is sometimes found in Hispanic grocery stores an Achiote.

[pugmama]

I increase the spice in this chili to our taste. I like butternut squash in anything.
I also do this when I want to use up a rotisserie chicken. Once I used a local chocolate malted type of beer, but could not find the beer again. I guess it wasn’t a big hit at the pub.

https://food52.com/recipes/15924-holy-mole-chicken-chili#comments

[Rushmore Rocks]

I love green gazpacho. But prefer it a bit chunky. I make garlic croutons to top it off, along with some diced heirloom tomatoes and a bit of shredded Jack cheese. Yum. That’s for dinner tomorrow.

[disndat]

My wife uses Knorr’s tomato in her rice. Can’t tell you what else she adds but it is good.

As far as chili goes I like it hot.

I ought to try chicken chili.