Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

When we were married, one of our wedding gifts was a beautiful, copper ‘beehive’ Oster blender. (I was collecting 'everything copper' back then, and my copper Oster toaster is still going strong, and will probably last my lifetime.)

The blender has also been a great tool and lasted a long time, but has been on its last legs recently; and my husband decided a while back that he wanted a Breville as soon as we were ready to budget it. (I think he had seen it highly rated by America’s Test Kitchen.)

We happened to be in an ‘off-price’ department store last week which had the Breville for about $75 dollars less than we had expected to pay; and with that, the Breville Hemisphere Blender traveled to the top of the ‘wish list’, and all the way home.

I will miss the very ‘retro’ look of my old blender; but the Breville is pretty ‘whiz-bang’, with pre-programmed settings for blending/crushing/liquefying; and it’s very easy to clean and maintain. We’re having a lot of fun with it.

The manual came with recipes, and this soup caught my eye; I’ll be saving it for the cold-creeping-in Autumn days:

CHICKEN, CORN AND GINGER SOUP

Serves 4

1-½ tablespoon Peanut Oil

4 Green Onions, thinly sliced

2 inch piece fresh Ginger, finely chopped

3 cups fresh or frozen Corn Kernels

4 cups Chicken Stock

1-½ tablespoon Soy Sauce

1-½ tablespoon Rice Wine

½ teaspoon Sesame Oil

2 small Chicken Breast fillets, thinly sliced

¼ Cup roughly chopped fresh Cilantro leaves (optional)

White Pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add onions and ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add corn and cook, stirring occasionally, for a further 3-4 minutes.

2. Add stock and water and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. Transfer half of the mixture to blender jug, place lid on blender jug and blend on speed 2/MIX for 30 seconds. Return pureed soup to remaining soup in saucepan with soy, wine, sesame and chicken. Cook on a medium high heat until soup starts to simmer and chicken is just cooked through.

4. Serve with fresh chopped coriander (cilantro)and white pepper to taste

__________________________________________________________

I went looking for a new smoothie recipe to try, and found this one:

1 Cup Pineapple Juice

1 large Banana, cut into chunks (I usually use a frozen banana)

1 Cup frozen Strawberries

1 Cup frozen Blueberries

Pulse to get it started, and then blend until slushy.

_________________________________________________________

The Breville Manual also had a recipe for a version of my husband’s favorite mixed drink:

Margarita Cocktail

(Serves Two)

¼ Cup Tequila

¼ Cup Cointreau

1/3 Cup Lime Juice

1/8 Cup fresh Orange Juice

¼ Cup Simple Syrup

12 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender jug.

Use the Ice Crush function or the Liquefy function (adapt for your blender) and blend until well combined and ice is crushed.

Serve in salt-rimmed glasses.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

I wish you would give us just ONE crockpot recipe that doesn’t come out watered-down and flavorless.

I love the notion of ‘crockpot’ in theory; but the only thing I’ve had even mild success with is pulled-pork - which I’ve been told should never be done in a crock pot ;-)

-JT

[MV=PY]

Perfect.

Good to see you mylife!

Whatever happened to Gun Talk Radio? I miss it.

It seems like it sorta tapered off... or I slipped off the list.

[leaning conservative]

I love that story & have read it in class many times. Kids love it.

[boatbums]

One of our favorite breakfasts is cottage cheese pancakes. In a blender, you blend together 4 eggs, 1 cup cottage cheese, 3 tbls. flour and 3 tbls. vegetable oil until smooth. Griddle them just like regular pancakes and serve with butter and maple syrup or pureed fruit. Very low carbs and high in protein, too!

[Daffynition]

And during a power outage you’ll wish you had a manual. :)

Zyliss makes a good product.

[mylife]

Hey a 4.5 hour smoke at 200 deg works too but in the kitchen?

[mylife]

went off the radar

[CottonBall]

banana coladas!

[kalee]

Strawberry banana daquiris. Yum!

[CottonBall]

sounds good too!

strawberry coladas don’t though, for some reason.

popover batters are great in a blender.

[kalee]

I like these two cookbooks for slow cookers.

The Southern Slow Cooker: Big Flavor, Low Fuss for Comfort Food Classics by Kendra Bailey Morris

The Southern Slow Cooker Bible : 365 Easy and Delicious Down-Home Recipes by Tammy Algood

[kalee]

I guess I am a small appliance junkie. I also have an Oster stick blender, a Waring rice cooker, and a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. We got the ice cream maker to go with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home book.

[kalee]

I used to get those at a restaurant we went to in the 80s-90s and have been thinking about them recently. They were served in a tall hurricane glass with whipped cream and a fanned strawberry and a couple mint leaves on top.

[Liz]

This is a delicious lightning-quick Ninja recipe.
Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt is great.

ORANGE CREAM SHAKE
Fill 16 cube ice tray--half with orange juice--half with low-fat vanilla
yogurt. Freeze 4-24 hrs. Add frozen cubes with 6 oz oj into Ninja. Pulse
6-8 times to consistency of thick shake.

[CottonBall]

one could get sloshed without knowing it drinking fruity drinks!

[Liz]

This watermelon gazpacho from a California wine country restaurant made is made in a
blender within minutes, elegantly served in a martini glass.

Watermelon Gazpacho

ING 1 large tomato, pureed 1/2 serrano chile 2 cups cubed fresh watermelon 1 tsp white balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp minced red onion 1/2 cucumber, seeded and minced 2 tbsp minced fresh dill, plus more for garnish Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

METHOD In a blender, puree the tomatoes, chile and 1/2 of the watermelon. Pour in the white balsamic vinegar and olive oil and pulse. Add the onion, cucumber and dill and season with salt and pepper. Puree until smooth. Pour into chilled bowls and sprinkle with dill, feta, and remaining watermelon. Stir.

[goosie]

Brings back memories.

[goosie]

Have you tried corn on the cob in the microwave, this way:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U10MkdbzS54

It is wonderful.

[GBA]

I recently bought an Instant Pot pressure cooker, which looks very similar to that one, and I use that thing all the time.

For example, today is dog food making day. My one dog had some major liver scare last year and one of the only things I could do for him was to give him a liver-friendly, healing diet.

I thought I was doing things right before, but soon convinced myself that this new diet was much better for them.

Ever since then, I've been making the dogs' food in the kitchen, nothing from a can, bag or box other than brown rice or rolled oats, all from the meat and produce aisles of the grocery store, organic if possible.

I don't know what actually healed him, but both dogs' numbers per the vet are great and they both look even better than their "Before" pictures.

Lots of work, though, especially for someone who doesn't like cleaning and chopping veggies or doing lots of dishes.

That Instant Pot helps ease the workload, though, and I wouldn't be without it or something similar.

I'll chop up some carrots, sweet potato, celery, green beans and some brown rice for the first layer and add water to top of veggies and stir well to mix. Then add in a whole, cut up chicken and a chopped zucchini.

I'm not sure what spices are good/bad for dogs, but I've been adding in some rosemary and a few fine grinds of salt.

I'm still experimenting with cooking times on the Manual/High setting and still tend to overcook the chicken to "melt in your mouth" tender, but it's for the dogs and they seem to like it. (Me, too!)

I do a chicken picking to separate the meat from the skin and bones, both of which will go back in to the Instant Pot with more chopped veggies to make a big batch of chicken bone stock.

The cooked veggies get saved separately from the pulled chicken meat and all the containers are topped off with the remaining liquid.

Some go into the freezer and I use the rest as needed per meal to cover their protein and veggie/starch/etc. needs and also use the twice pressure cooked chicken bones for the mandatory calcium requirements.

With the Instant Pot pressure cooker, nothing gets wasted, even the moisture stays in with only a small amount of steam released.

I use the bone stock to warm up the dog food, since it all comes out of the refrigerator, and also add in some additional pureed green veggies, steamed sweet potatoes, some enzymes, along with some coconut oil.

They eat better than I do now. Their hair, skin and ears are better than ever and I don't ever worry about their food.

The only thing is changing the protein every few meals for variety and to make sure they're getting all they need nutrition-wise.

It's a lot more work than their old can and bag based diet, but that pressure cooker makes it MUCH easier and faster, and better, too!

[Trillian]

A fellow Freeper needs help with Mediterranean Diet cookbook recommendations.
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