Monthly Cooking Thread, January 2022

[kalee]

You might like this book if you have an Instant Pot. All kinds of cheese and dairy products are in the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Cheese-Discover-Mozzarella/dp/163586240X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=I2LKBYAYOYVK&keywords=cheese+instant+pot+cookbook&qid=1641071497&sprefix=cheese+instant+pot%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-3

[boatbums]

I made a pot of fresh black-eyed peas today for dinner with rice and a nice pork roast. It was the first time I tried ground Aleppo pepper in place of Creole seasoning and it was amazing.

First I boiled some meaty smoked ham hocks in water in my large pot for a little over an hour and then in a frying pan I sauteed chopped onions, celery and garlic in EVOO. Added thyme, paprika, black pepper, a little cayenne, the Aleppo pepper and bay leaves and then added it all to the pot with the hocks. I rinsed two 12 oz. packages of fresh black-eyed peas in water and then added them in. Brought it to a boil then simmered for a good two and a half hours. After the first hour I added salt and some brown sugar. The hock meat was quite tender after that and I shredded it and put it back in the pot. Even my Yankee hubby really liked it!

Have any of y'all used Aleppo pepper? I'm going to start experimenting with it. It has a "fruity" kind of heat that isn't overly spicy at all.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t think we’ve ever seen Aleppos in our groceries, but your pot sounds a lot like the navy bean soup with ham hocks that my husband makes. (He puts potatoes in, which I don’t really like in soup - unless it’s Vichyssoise.)

I will try yours, it sounds very good. But I’ve never seen fresh black-eye peas - only the canned or dried ones. I guess I’d have to soak the dry (?)

[boatbums]

I had seen Aleppo pepper used in recipes I’ve watched online and ordered a small jar through Amazon to try it out.

We live in Florida so the fresh peas are usually available in grocery stores around this time of year. If you use the dried ones, you would want to soak them overnight and then drain and use them in your recipe. I like to cook them so that they are not soupy and then serve over rice. I cook mine longer to get that consistency, but fresh peas don’t take nearly as long to get tender as the dried ones.

There are other ways you can use dried other than an overnight soak. You can cover them in water (an inch over), bring to a boil for 2 minutes then cover and let them soak for an hour before draining and using. I’ve done that with red beans and it works fine.

I LOVE navy bean soup!

[Jamestown1630]

Aleppo is apparently somewhat similar to Ancho. I’ll look around for it online.

[MomwithHope]

I wonder if you can use kefir instead of buttermilk.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t really know anything about kefir - but I assume it’s ‘cultured’ and like yogurt. I think you could use it; one of the recipes I saw suggested using yogurt.

[MomwithHope]

That helps thanks. I always have kefir on hand.

[MomwithHope]

I went to our local dairy yesterday and cream was on my list. I put up a cup with 2 tablespoons of kefir last night. It’s been sitting out and is nice and thick already. I’ve timed it for 16 hours and will put it in the fridge at 8. Hubby picking up a small container of fresh blackberries at the store. Breakfast tomorrow. Thanks for the info.

[Jamestown1630]

Is kefir much like yogurt?

[MomwithHope]

Better than yogurt, it has a much broader spectrum of probiotics than yogurt. This is the oldest bookmark I have, everything you want to know about kefir.

https://www.kefir.net/

[Jamestown1630]

Thanks!

[Liz]

Wall to wall chocolate and a full sugar high. Serve warm from the oven with a cold glass of milk.

ALL-CHIP CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
2 C dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
2 C flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 bag Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
1 bag Heath bar chips
1/2 bag white chocolate chips
1/2 bag milk chocolate chips (Guitard is my favorite)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix 2 sticks of butter with 2 C of dark brown sugar until creamy. Add 2 eggs, mix thoroughly. Add vanilla. Then, mix in flour, salt and baking soda. After completely combined, add any or all of the candy listed above. Bake, but remove when slightly underdone.

[Trillian]

Joe Froggers

Ingredients
1 cup molasses (I used Golden Barrel) (300 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup rum
1 tablespoon water
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (measure with a light hand or weigh) (420 grams)
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)

Instructions
In a glass measure, stir together the molasses and baking soda and let sit for about 10 minutes. Molasses will expand in volume.
Meanwhile, combine the rum, water and salt. Stir to dissolve salt. If it doesn’t all dissolve, don’t worry.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until well blended. It won’t be super creamy due to the high amount of sugar. Scrape in the molasses/soda mixture and beat until mixed, then gradually add the rum mixture and the flour mixture alternately. The batter starts out very thick, so it will take some elbow grease. If you have a stand mixer with a paddle, this is a good use for it.
With a cookie scoop, scoop out about 18 or 24 portions of dough. At this point the mounds of dough will be pretty soft. Arrange them on two dinner plates, cover with plastic and chill overnight or at least for a few hours.
When ready to bake, shape the chilled rounds into neat balls. Pat them down 1/2 inch thick (about 3 inches across) on parchment lined baking sheets about 6 to a sheet and leaving plenty of room for spreading.
Bake one sheet at a time in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 if you made them smaller). Allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minute directly on the baking sheet.
When the cookies cool they’ll be fairly firm, but as they stand they soften up. I stored mine in a zipper bag for several days and they seemed to get softer and softer. You can bend them almost into taco shell shape.

Notes
The flour amount should be 280 grams which could be 2 cups measured with a light hand or 2 1/4 cups with fluffier flour. For best results, weigh the flour.

https://www.cookiemadness.net/2022/01/11/joe-froggers/

History of Joe Froggers
https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2016/11/01/joe-froggers-weight-past-cookie/#.YdoV8GjMJPY

[Trillian]

I love this recipe. I use it for puffcorn and corn/rice chex. My family refers to it as crack. lol

[Liz]

Some use cheese puff corn w/ the caramel.......and swear it’s better.

[Trillian]

I could not make it with the cheese ones. Maybe it’s the people who like that chicago popcorn mix. Cheddar and caramel popcorn mixed together.

[Liz]

Vanilla Syrup / 20 serves

Ing 2 cups white sugar 2 cups water, divided ¼ vanilla bean

Steps Microwave vanilla bean and 2 teaspoons water til softened, about 30 sec. Bring sugar and remaining water to boil. Split vanilla bean lengthwise; scrape out seeds. Add seeds/pod to pan; boil until syrup is thickened slightly, about 2 min. Cool to room temp offheat.

Cook’s Notes: make a thicker syrup using cup sugar....nice for iced coffee.....or vanilla Coke.

Thin syrup makes great vanilla soda with 1/4 part syrup and 3/4 part soda water.

Thin syrup plus sweetened condensed milk on shaved ice makes a great snow cone.

Refrigerator until ready to use in clean Ball jars.....can be stored with or without the vanilla bean.

[Liz]

Penzey Spices Says All Republicans Are’Racist,’ Who Want to ‘Shoot a Black Person’
newsweek ^ | 1/18/22 | Daniel Villarreal
Posted on 1/20/2022, 1:28:17 PM by Main Street

On Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Day, a spice company sent out an email calling all Republicans “racist” who largely hope to one day “shoot a Black person.”

Penzeys Spices, a Wisconsin-based company, issued an email promotion Jan. 14 dubbing the MLK holiday weekend, “Republicans are racist weekend.”

The promotion went on to accuse Republicans of opposing BLM’s success “in moving America towards greater equality for Black people, in many ways the first real success since the time of Dr. King,” during the racial justice protests that erupted nationwide during summer 2020.

“Republicans did all they could to derail that success by trying to drown out BLM’s message with shouts of all lives matter, and blue lives matter, and lying about the leaders of BLM being Marxists and Communists,” the company’s promotion said.

The promotional message then accused Republicans of labeling BLM activists as “terrorists inciting violence throughout the country” and then “[racing] out to buy a crapload of guns because maybe they were finally going to get their chance to shoot a Black person.”

“What a bunch of racists,” the message continued. It then accused Republicans of gerrymandering, making it harder for people of color to vote and of supporting former President Donald Trump, a man who characterized Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “murderers.”

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...

[lizma2]

Penzey went Anti-Trump early on and haven’t set foot in there since. And never will again.