What's everyone cooking this week?

[Sakkarin Profile]

Two oldies but goodies. Bowlfood seems to be my thing these days:

Friday: Jjiggae again - chicken, tofu and kimchi stew made with the last of my batch of homemade kimchi.



Saturday: Achari Chicken Tikka. Yum.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Thing that really annoys me about JO - why would you use olive oil in a teriyaki dish? You don’t want the flavour and it’s expensive compared to a neutral oil that would be more appropriate

Other than that, recipe looks good

[Sakkarin Profile]

Things that DON'T annoy me about Jamie O:

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Ooh, it didn’t warn me you had posted - it usually does, but I didn’t see it. I was replying to scully of course

[Amyw Profile]

Nice looking food Sakkarin.

Yes I do find Jamie a bit overly repetitive at times with use of his ingredients such as olive oil , lemons, chillies etc . And I’m a Jamie fan

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Everyone's food looks lovely as usual.

I think that for people who only have one bottle of oil on the go, olive has become the one due to JO and other 'celeb' cooks turning it into an everyday product rather than something special with only certain uses. Bog standard supermarket olive oil doesn't really have much flavour. The aubergine dish looks interesting, I'm wondering how much the peanuts get fried/roasted in the two minutes? I wish I could get more excited by aubergine.

I batch cooked some mince a couple of days ago and have been doing various things with it, mainly with lots of freshly added veg. Trying to cut carbs down at present and discovered that my brain can be fooled into thinking that bean sprouts are spaghetti if added to batch cooked 'bolognese'(bit worried what that says about my brain!). Looking forward to smoked haddock today.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

It's not just the flavour of olive oil that's an issue - it's expensive, usually at least £3 + a litre and it's not good at high temperature, whereas sunflower or "veg oil" can be picked up for £1 per litre

Though actually I'm not replacing my bottle of sunflower oil, as I have a bottle of inexpensive olive oil that is so tasteless and odourless I'll use it up in its place, and get a small bottle of the good stuff for dressings

[karadekoolaid Profile]

One of the things one learns after cooking (and experimenting) over a long time is that no oil is the same! I too find it somewhat irritating that olive oil is splashed on (almost) everything, regardless of ethnic requirements or taste pairing.
Let´s take it backwards, just for fun.
Imagine preparing your next Paella. With coconut oil.
Or using ghee in your fettucine Alfredo.
How about a bouillabaisse - drizzled with mustard oil?
Or a comforting mossaka - with Chinese sesame oil?

So why use olive oil in Teryaki? Beats me.
Oh, and the tsp of oil made it 6 ingredients!

[karadekoolaid Profile]

OK - so yesterday I had a client call me to ask me to make some Pepper Jelly for her. She´s obviously addicted.
For those of you who have never made/heard of pepper jelly, it´s something I was taught by an American friend from Louisiana. Very popular over there as a relish, for sandwiches, on burgers, etc. Basically it´s peppers (green, red, yellow, purple - or chile peppers), vinegar, sugar and pectin.
So I made 2 kgs of Rocoto Pepper Jelly. While it was cooking I took a look at what was lurking in the fridge, and found 1) tomato sauce 2) half a red pepper 3) some ricotta 4) A head of wonderful broccoli 5) half a packet of lasagna 6)less than half a bottle of Merlot.
Priority #1 - don´t let the Merlot go to waste
Cooked the lasagna, added the peppers to the tomato sauce, mixed the broccoli with the ricotta (and a pinch or two of nutmeg), made a bechamel sauce, then put it all together and popped it in the oven . I´ve got plenty for today as well!

[Badger's Mate Profile]

We've been clearing the soft fruit from the freezer in readiness for this year's crop. I made 17 jars of raspberry jam the other day with the new stuff plus a bag of frozen that I hadn't realised we had got. Also some gooseberry chutney to an Atul Kochhar recipe.

However, this has led us to check out the stock of jams and pickles in the cupboard upstairs. Apart from the 2014 piccalilli and 2015 apple chutney there's some chilli jam, which is made just like your pepper jelly, KK.

[Pampy Profile]

Ooh, it didn’t warn me you had posted - it usually does, but I didn’t see it. I was replying to scully of course

I've recently experienced that too.

[jeral Profile]

... as there's a whole jar of the [teryaki] sauce in the fridge now -
- 'and a small aubergine'.

I came across this list of suitable veg: mushrooms, carrots, sugar snap peas, broccoli, white or yellow onion, bell peppers-any color, green onion, water chestnuts, and baby corn. You could also add, bok choy, cabbage, asparagus, zucchini, mung bean sprouts, or spicy peppers.

There's a recipe here which tray-roasts veg pieces rather than slivers for a stirfry, which I fancy as also they don't get beaten about like tossing in a stiry fry:
https://peasandcrayons.com/2017/12/teri ... ables.html

A favourite use of mine is to halve baby pak choi lengthwise and fry cut side down in a tablespoon or two of oil with garlic and chilli, then add teryaki sauce diluted with water, add sliced chestnut mushrooms and simmer till reduced and mushrooms cooked. I blanch the pak choi first.

Doesn't have to be aubergine

[jeral Profile]

...
After which, we shall never speak of this ever again

Well maybe just the once. My trout concoction was very good. To the cream sauce I added three cloves, nutmeg, thyme, tamari, black pepper and one I forget now and sea salt sprinkle to serve.

I missed the earthiness that spinach or cavolo nero would have added with the trout so the artichoke hearts were slightly wasted, but I really just could not bear the thought of eating the dreaded usual suspects yet again.

Sakkarin, your dishes lately all look very similar - rice or noodles with tasty ladleful. Do you no longer get the inner calling for a discrete meat and two veg plate? John Torode has to have all seven umamis on one huge forkful too so maybe it's a form of addiction given his euphoric reaction to them.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

One of the things one learns after cooking (and experimenting) over a long time is that no oil is the same! I too find it somewhat irritating that olive oil is splashed on (almost) everything, regardless of ethnic requirements or taste pairing.
Let´s take it backwards, just for fun.
Imagine preparing your next Paella. With coconut oil.
Or using ghee in your fettucine Alfredo.
How about a bouillabaisse - drizzled with mustard oil?
Or a comforting mossaka - with Chinese sesame oil?

So why use olive oil in Teryaki? Beats me.
Oh, and the tsp of oil made it 6 ingredients!

I do actually use ghee quite often in European food - clarified butter is just clarified butter imo
But in a similar vein recipes are often written by chefs who seem incapable of adding any liquid except chicken stock to a savoury dish. I’ve seen dal recipes that specify it. Though it can’t be tasted through the spice, and it seems to have no function other than making the dish non-veg, and of course acting as a flag that the chef in question is a Bear of Very Little Brain and hasn’t thought about the dish at all

[Amyw Profile]

...
After which, we shall never speak of this ever again

Well maybe just the once. My trout concoction was very good. To the cream sauce I added three cloves, nutmeg, thyme, tamari, black pepper and one I forget now and sea salt sprinkle to serve.

I missed the earthiness that spinach or cavolo nero would have added with the trout so the artichoke hearts were slightly wasted, but I really just could not bear the thought of eating the dreaded usual suspects yet again.

Sakkarin, your dishes lately all look very similar - rice or noodles with tasty ladleful. Do you no longer get the inner calling for a discrete meat and two veg plate? John Torode has to have all seven umamis on one huge forkful too so maybe it's a form of addiction given his euphoric reaction to them.

I think the two dishes look totally different ?? Sakkarin has always seemed to prefer more Asian than European style of cooking . I think everyone has their own way and styles of cooking

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Hear hear amy....!!

Do you no longer get the inner calling for a discrete meat and two veg plate?

That's rich coming from a veggie.............

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Fishy weekend here - early morning ( 7 am ) trip to the fishmongers on Friday morning produced some lovely plaice which we had with fennel, scalloped pots & peas last night & also bought three female crabs which, after the Lushly had cracked & dressed them we had last night with a prawn salad - more.......

Tonight is chicken tikka masala.

[WWordsworth Profile]

Doing a chicken thigh thing with smoked bacon, spring onions, stock and shredded lettuce.
It will be served with garden veg.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

But in a similar vein recipes are often written by chefs who seem incapable of adding any liquid except chicken stock

I wonder if the chicken stock thing is American? they just love to add chicken stock to everything as well. I´ve seen (and tried) pasta recipes where the pasta itself is cooked in chicken stock. Yuk.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I wonder if the chicken stock thing is American?

No, I was thinking mainly of U.K. recipes, I think it’s a thing from a certain type of unimaginative professional kitchen where stock is always part of the mise en place, good domestic food writers such as Diana Henry, Nigel Slater or Nigella don’t often do it

Last night’s dinner involved beef stock from a cube but was mainly layers of potato and onion moistened with the stock, topped with a half shoulder of lamb rubbed with a paste of herbs and garlic in olive oil and slow cooked. Served with fresh broad beans cooked with a sprig of savory.