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So what are you cooking tonight?
#161011 03/08/07 07:08 AM
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(Thread title acknowledgement to sirquack ; thanks!)

Listening to Radio Paradise - good indie Internet radio - on M3's upstairs and M60's downstairs, while I cook this fantastically complicated duck 'n beans recipe.

I eat to live, but I love to cook. I have been working on an extended version of the French classic cassoulet, the cooking of which seems to cause more emotions than football .

The recipe I'm starting out with is the classic four day version, but as I am an impatient fellow I'm trying to compress it down to just three days.

Day one

Soak the beans... classic says 24 hours, I say 2 oughta do it;

Replace water, simmer the beans with some extra bits... I combined this step with the ham hocks (which I didn't have, see below);

Season and marinate the duck 24 hours before making the confit... classic says another day, I say I can't wait that long, let's just confit the quacker right now!

Simmer the duck in (lots of) duck fat four hours: check (oops, that was too long; next time let's try two hours).

Brown and simmer salted pork, ham hock, onions, carrot, bouquet garni etc. for an hour... well, OK, forgot to buy the pork and ham, but I do have a couple of lamb shanks; let's try those. But don't have time to do this according to Hoyle, so let's just brown the veggies in some duck fat and then throw them in with the lamb shanks and the beans - add some water, turn on the gas for a couple of hours and see what happens. (Note to self: buy more thyme, you cannot make a decent bouquet garni without it).

End of day one: we have some boiled beans and lamb shank, as well as a nice duck confit, well preserved in a ton of duck fat (oh, yeah, this is key: I did have about 1 litre / quart of duck fat in the freezer which I saved from the duck which I cooked last week. You can never have enough duck fat when you're going to confit a duck. )

Ditch the carrot, onions, etc. from the beans. Remove duck confit to a clean container and cool everything (it helps that it is about 35 below C outside, so even though I've been cooking all night it is a decently cool 10 above C in the pantry).

Let the cat in (again). Bank the fire. Go to bed, reflecting on a job well done.

Day two

Classic says to warm up some pork fat to smoking hot, then brown onions (translating from French, but sometimes I get it wrong). Don't have pork fat, but I do have plenty of duck fat, so...

Classic next step is to brown a couple of ham hocks, which (d'oh) I forgot to buy, but I do have a pound of good organic bacon from Rowe Farms so let's brown that. Brown some onions - oops, out of onions but here we have some shallots, close enough.

Add some "plain homemade pork sausage" (a la nature)... well, I forgot to off the pig this year but I have some lamb sausage with mint in the fridge so let's use that.

Put two diced tomatoes into the saucepan... Yeah, I could do that, but I only have one tomatoe (you say tomato, I say something else). I think I'll use some nice Italian pressed tomatoes from a bottle - way better than winter tomatoes in Toronto.

Add some garlic cloves, bay leaves, more thyme (woo hoo, these I have).

"In an special earthenware cassoulet dish"... well, what do you know, I have to improvise here. I do have a nice iron/ceramic dutch oven, I'll use that.

...layer the meats, sauce and beans with a good dusting of ground pepper over each layer.

Pepper I have. In fact - because I love pepper, I have a selection of peppers and grinders. Let's see, should I use Tellicherry, Red Sechuan, Cubebe, White Vietnamese? The ceramic grinder, the Peugot, the plastic deli-issue twister? I opt for the grocery store "gourmet pepper mix": this dish takes a lot of pepper.

Finish with a dusting of rough black breadcrumbs on the top... OK, I gotta admit, I faked this one. For some reason, I'm out of rough black breadcumbs, so I use the fine white ones. So, sue me.

Place in pre-heated slow (300 F) oven three hours. Break the crust which forms three times - no, six times - no, don't use breadcrumbs and don't break crust - depends on which classic recipe we're using - so I decide to break it four times. I hope the soundstage is wide and the highs are not too bright when we finally get to eat this dish.

So, that's what I'm cooking tonight (since yesterday). I'll let you know whether my tweaks are good (well, they have to be: they're tweaks) on the weekend, when we finally:

Day three

Classic... Serve at the table and break the crust in front of the assembled company.

... and serve the appropriate wine: inexpensive, unheralded, and high-alcohol like a good plebian Minervois. No shortage of these wines in the cellar (hello, wine thread) so we're good to go.

Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
NADishman #161012 03/08/07 11:59 AM
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Well NADish, I applaud your conviction. I love food, and I enjoy cooking, but I'm far too impatient for a 3 to 4 day recipie.

At work, we were just shipped our first skid of Big Green Eggs yesterday. There will be a demonstrator that the staff can take home on weekends. I can't wait to fire that bad boy up.


Shawn

Epic 80/600 + M3's + M3 Algonquins + M2 Computer + EP125
I think I'm developing an addiction.
Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
NADishman #161013 03/08/07 12:49 PM
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Im'g going to practice for a chili cook off coming up soon:


Made on a Mac
Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
vassillios #161014 03/08/07 12:56 PM
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Some of the best chili I have ever had was made with BigJohns chili recipe.


Rick


"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud

Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
Wid #161015 03/08/07 06:19 PM
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Good lord, Scott. You DO love to cook!

I enjoy dabbling in the kitchen, but am clearly not to your level. I cook well enough to present and enjoy the results on a good day.

I enjoyed your post VERY much! Thank you.

Quote:

You can never have enough duck fat when you're going to confit a duck




Now, what other audio board is going to give you that, I ask you?


bibere usque ad hilaritatem
Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
NADishman #161016 03/09/07 02:49 AM
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Wow. I never had the courage to try something like a cassoulet, and I was never quite sure I would like the finished product anyways. Your tweaks look mighty tasty though -- I'm looking forward to the weekend to see how it turns out.

My "cooking" tonight wasn't even real cooking, but it did spread out over a couple of days, so without further ado I give you...

La-Z-Man Muffuletta !!

Day One

Dump the following into a strainer, then into some kind of resealable container(s):

28 ounce jar of Hot Pickled Vegetables
28 ounce jar of Stuffed Green Olives
8-ish ounce jar of Sweet or Sweet/Sour Cocktail Onions
28-ounce jar or 2 14-ounce cans of sliced black olives
If you're into peperoncito (sp?) peppers put a bunch of them in too; I cut the tops off and drain them first.

Chop a few cloves of garlic and add to the olive mix. If any of the pickled vegetables are really big then cut them up and put back.

Mix well, then cover (or at least 1/2 cover) with a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil. Using more olive oil tastes better, but the vegetable oil lets you take the resulting olive salad out of the fridge and use it without having to wait a few hours for the olive oil to turn back into a liquid. Put in the fridge and come back in a day or 20.

Day Two (three, four, five...)

Take the olive salad out of the fridge and let it warm up enough that the oil is liquid. Cut a loaf of Italian bread, or fresh crusty Kaiser rolls, in half. Pick out a bit of the bread in the middle to make room for the good stuff.

Put a good layer of olive salad, including oil, on both sides of the bread. Yes, that means almost completely covering the bread with olives, onions, peppers. You want the oil to soak into the bread a bit but you don't want the bread to disintegrate.

Add a layer of Hot Genoa Salami, Regular Mortadella and Regular Capicollo to one half of the bread. Add a layer of Provolone cheese to the other half of the bread. Push the meats into the bread gently with the palm of your hand then invert onto the cheese-covered half. Press sandwich together. Hardcore eaters will wrap the sandwich in wax paper and leave it for a while to soak, but I don't do that.

Cut in half (kaiser) or four (Italian loaf) and enjoy. Done properly it is a bit messy, kinda spicy and extremely tasty. It also looks extremely odd when you cut it in half.

Last edited by bridgman; 03/09/07 02:57 AM.

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Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
NADishman #161017 03/09/07 03:39 AM
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Some day I may have the patience for a multi-day recipe, but no time soon.

Tonight, it was easy/lazy leftover enchiladas. Pour some red enchilada sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Cover the bottom of the pan with corn tortillas. Spoon leftover rice and beans over the tortillas. Add shredded cheese and more sauce. Add another layer of tortillas. Add shredded leftover rotisserie chicken. Add more cheese. Add another layer of tortillas and top with more cheese and sauce. Bake at 400 covered in foil for 20 minutes. Bake uncovered an additional 5 to 10 or until top gets a little crispy.

Easy, tasty, and saves you from throwing out food.

While we ate, we had the chicken carcass on the stove in a small pot of water with some herbs to start a stock for soup later in the week. We've since added celery, carrots, onions, more herbs and spices, some cooked chicken chunks, a bit of soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and broken up uncooked spaghetti. Preliminary tasting leads me to believe it'll be a nice soup by the time we eat it tomorrow or the day after.

Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
real80sman #161018 03/09/07 03:56 AM
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My brother has an egg. My sister has an egg. That's a nice cooker, and great for turkey.

Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
tomtuttle #161019 03/09/07 04:03 AM
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My "level" of accomplishment doesn't always match my enthusiasm, but the adventure is at least half of the enjoyment.

My wife (who is a wonderful cook and hostess) would prefer if I don't test new recipes on unsuspecting guests, but how often am I going to just do a test run on something like cassoulet?

Re: So what are you cooking tonight?
NADishman #161020 03/09/07 02:22 PM
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I proudly uphold my family tradition of always trying new recipes on unsuspecting guests. Then if it doesn't work out, there aren't as many leftovers to deal with! {giggles} Last weekend I tried a recipe for braised fennel, onions and potatoes - deeelish! But so pale - it was one case of having to eat with your nose instead of your eyes.

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