:lulz: I need to relearn how to internet!
Oh hi guys! Missed it here and I thought I would come back and bring with me foods! So here is the first installment of Raph's Kitchen. Please enjoy and any advice on how to improve my cooking is MOST WELCOME thanks! :wink:
Coconut Shrimp:
So during my first excursion to Whole Foods (possibly my last) I bought this thing of coconut. I thought, well I could use this up no problem... fucking wrong. Anyway here is the latest in my effort to use up all this coconut. I bought some frozen shrimp, it was not too expensive at about $7.00 a bag. This was the cheapest but it was also the only raw and organic kind they had. Which is nice, but it means peeling and pulling shit veins out of those little fuckers. I also had a Spaghetti squash that needed to be used as it was hanging around my counter for nearly two weeks.
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First I set my squash baking at about 350 to 400. I had never made Spaghetti squash before and I figured it would be the same as cooking butternut. While that was going I set up my dipping station with egg wash, flour mixed with a Cajon seasoning and my coconut then set about cleaning my shrimps.
Once I pulled the legs and poop veins from those guys I filled my cast iron pan with canola oil and let it heat up while I battered mah shrimp. Now if anyone can recommend a better way to batter things I would be very grateful because this was messy and time consuming. First I dipped them in the egg, then the flower then the egg again and finally rolled them in the coconut. Perhaps next time I will change up the dipping procedure and test the results, hindsight is 20/20 after all.
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Well I fried them till they were golden brown, some got a little more brown than others but that's to be expected because I do not have a thermometer so I really don't know how hot the oil was. At some point the squash was done so I scooped it out and added some cinnamon and blue agave syrup. I think I over cooked this squash, or something because it did not look like Spaghetti at all more like rice. It tasted good and that's really what counts.
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I popped some fresh green beans in to the oven with drizzle of sweet almond oil, a dash of sea salt and some crushed almonds as well. I plated it all up with yesterday's salad and made a dipping sauce for the shrimps too. All I had was coconut milk and some Thai peanut sauce so I mixed those together for instant yum.
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Orange Beef:
When making the coconut shrimp yesterday, I opened a can of coconut milk, and now I needed to use more of it. I also had a bunch of Oranges hanging around in my fridge as well as some small steaks I grabbed on sale. Now just looking at all those oranges pisses me off and I'll digress here to tell you why.
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See for some reason I feel compelled to buy produce grown here in America, preferably grown in Florida if at all possible. In the grocery store I spied these wonderful looking oranges and I really wanted to get about four or five of them. I had three in my bag when I noticed a sticker on one of them, it said product of Tanzania. So here I am in FLORIDA about to buy oranges from Africa. So I put those fuckers back and grabbed a bag of oranges from California instead. So now I have about 9 more oranges than I really wanted. (This is just an idiosyncrasy; I'll buy produce from Vietnam if I am in a Viet market.)
Now back to the cooking. So first I cranked the heat on my cast iron and set my steak so searing. Then I started some rice I have a good formula for that its two cups water to one cup rice. When the steaks were still very rare on the inside I took em off the heat, had a moment for a deep breath and boldly started the orange sauce.
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I cut an orange in half and juiced it, I grated some zest off the sides too, added some honey and a squirt from a tube of garlic paste the Mr. bought. I whisked it all together and added the leftover Thai Peanut / Coconut sauce from yesterday plus a bit more coconut milk. I got heavy handed and used too much coconut milk and I thought well I'll just cook it down.
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So I began the process of trying to thicken this slop. It worked out well I suppose. I added some ground ginger, a bit more honey and just a tad more Thai peanut sauce to the mix. Then I grabbed my beef, sliced it all up and added it to the sauce so let it cook all the way. (The Mr. doesn't like rare beef.) While that was simmering on low, I sautéed up some red bell pepper, onion, and baby Bella mushrooms. When the rice was done I added the veg., some rice wine vinegar, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and fresh cilantro.
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This meal was OK but not great. The sauce was good, but the blood from the meat turned it dark brown. The steak was just the way the Mr. likes it, well done and chewy. The rice however, was FANTASTIC.
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Yay! Glad you moved it here--and it looks fabu, the final product, I mean. Very colorful and very well turned out. BOTH dishes! I'll be trying this beef one soon--we has lotso stew meats that would do well with this.
Thanks Jenne! Stew meats would work well with the orange beef, but you may want to make up your own sauce. Mine was not so good. That's just the way I roll. I have really taken to heart the Badger Method of "Just Fucking Wing It". Sometimes it's great, but sometimes it's crap as well. Live and learn! Also I MUST use what I have already so I just make it up as I go along.
Sometime soon I want to try some LMNO recipes! His shit looks GOOD!
Stuffed Chicken:
I flattened the chicken with a small cast iron pan. Then I got tired of that and just slit them open. It's less loud that way. I layered the chicken with crushed garlic, cilantro, feta, spinach, and then tomatoes. Then I rolled those fuckers up and closed them with toothpicks and stuck them in the oven at about 350 for a while. Also baked some sweet potatoes! I used my left over spinach, some lightly blanched green beans, crushed almonds, and tomatoes to make a warmish salad. For the dressing I used sweet almond oil, basil, dill, white vinegar and some garlic. I added some cinnamon and a little drizzle of honey to the sweet potato, shit was good.
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I want to eat that! Oh god.
That chicken looks awesome.
Nice job with the chicken. The filling has all most of the flavors I love.
I really appreciate the comments guys! :) I have been trying to cook more healthy meals as well as not blow my bank!
LMNO, what other flavors would you recommend for next time?
Quote from: Raphaella VonMercer on October 15, 2008, 01:13:11 AM
1) Then I grabbed my beef, sliced it all up and added it to the sauce so let it cook all the way. (The Mr. doesn't like rare beef.)
2) The steak was just the way the Mr. likes it, well done and chewy. The rice however, was FANTASTIC.
this disgusts us. you should find a new spouse.
:lulz: NO BUT I LUVS HIM!! Seriously though I usually just make separate meats. Rare for me and well done for him.
Quote from: Raphaella VonMercer on October 16, 2008, 01:09:25 PM
I really appreciate the comments guys! :) I have been trying to cook more healthy meals as well as not blow my bank!
LMNO, what other flavors would you recommend for next time?
Whole basil leaves & mozzerella cheese
Sage
charred poblano peppers
bacon (obligatory)
mint, whole grain mustard and gruyere
Not all at the same time, of course.
raisins, feta, pine nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes makes an excellent stuffing for either chicken or fish done in a pinwheel or roulade style.
Thanks Guys! I'll try these fillings sometime soon they sound wonderful. Raisins? I never would have thought to use them in this way. I'll have to start thinking about foods in a more creative light, cause I love raisins.
I have some more pics ready but I am far too tired to fuck with photobucket right now. I'm going to the springs tomorrow with some friends from work and I have to get up real early.
I'll post em tomorrow though.
Quote from: East Coast Hustle on October 16, 2008, 01:16:20 PM
Quote from: Raphaella VonMercer on October 15, 2008, 01:13:11 AM
1) Then I grabbed my beef, sliced it all up and added it to the sauce so let it cook all the way. (The Mr. doesn't like rare beef.)
2) The steak was just the way the Mr. likes it, well done and chewy. The rice however, was FANTASTIC.
this disgusts us. you should find a new spouse.
QFT, in case anybody thought ECH was claiming a silent majority.
I think the only other person who enjoys meat-flavored cardboard is Mr. Suu.
Some people just don't appreciate the... urmmm... Yeah over done meat sucks. :| His eating habits could be worse though. I dated a guy once that would not eat tomatoes, onions, any strong tasting herbs, and meat with bones in it. Now that one I left to make his own chicken nuggets!
Anyway Here is the post/pictures from yesterday!
Chicken and Rice:
I went to the farmers market today! Got some fresh veggies, but they did not have whole chickens, or the chicken breasts that they normally have so I had to get bone in leg quarters. They should keep us in chicken and rice for a good three meals. (made separately) So first I started the chicken so I could use the broth for my rice. I went and worked on another project while the chicken was cooking. That done, I took about 2 cups of the chicken broth to start my rice, I added the saffron and turmeric first and then one cup of rice and set it to cooking.
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While the rice cooked I let the chicken cool enough to handle and then I started on my veg. I wanted to do a balsamic glaze so I started reducing that shit and my eyes! Oh god my eyes! They make some tasty balsamic glazed onions at work so I thought I would try this at home... See at work they have huge hoods and lots of room, so I never once smelled this stuff reducing. Shit smelled like hot sweat socks, or really tangy vomit! I downsized my plan to cover all the veg. in the glaze, but I had gone too far to scrap it so I did the onions only. I reduced it to about half, adding a drizzle of honey here and there.
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I sautéed up the pepper, portabella and broccoli with just a little olive oil and a dash of sea salt, because I knew the glaze would be a powerful flavor. When the rice was done I added some fresh cilantro, a dash of rice wine vinegar, and a tiny bit of olive oil also I added all the meat I pulled off the chicken having been careful to remove any little veins because the Mr. really hates that shit.
The glazed onions turned out awesome!! They had a wonderful sweet balsamic flavor and went great with the rest of the meal.
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Damn. I want a Jones cream soda.
Hot damn, Raphaella, you can COOK! That looks fabulous. Also your avatar cracks me up every single time.
Thanks Nigel! And that snail makes me laugh too.
Concerning Jones Soda, I wish I had some more but my grocery store has stopped carrying it. :cry: I bought the very last case and it was the firs time I tried it. Shit's good and has no sugar. It's the only soda I have had in months which is a feat of will for me, having to work at a restaurant let me tell you.
Black Iron Prison Bars: aka Coco Peanut Logs.
I love this recipe because it's easy and really, really, did I say really? FUCKING GOOD. The Mr. is usually the one who makes the sweet stuff, he can bake a mean cookie. This recipe came from a cook book his mother gave him from her church. I modified it for health reasons, but if you are not watching your sugars then you should use the good shit.
I have been making a huge effort to change the way I eat for the better these past few months. Refined sugar is something on my "avoid if at all possible" list. (This also includes high fructose corn syrup.) After a month and a half with no sweet stuff I got to looking for some sugar free chocolate what I found was low glycemic index chocolate which, to my great surprise and delight was very tasty! There is some sugar in this product, but not enough to send a diabetic into a coma and that's good enough for me. Only problem this shit is like $3.89 a bar. (I got three.)
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I also found some peanut butter with no sugar, it's the natural style with the oil on the top, and some organic brown rice puffs. Also cost and arm and a leg! $6.50 for the puffs and another $6-$7 for the peanut butter! That is the cost of craving sweet chocolate peanut butter goodness when you don't want to eat too much sugar.
On to cooking these things, I made two small batches. I chopped up one and one half chocolate bars and tossed em into a metal mixing bowl. I boiled a little water and held the bowl over it. The chocolate melts fast, so armed with my mixing spatula I stirred in a large glob of peanut butter. I removed the bowl from the heat and stirred in my puffed rice about two cups and then another handful because it was too wet.
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The next batch I threw in a few handfuls of that damn coconut that still haunts my kitchen. I spread that mix in a glass baking pan and stick it into the freezer. I forgot to grease the pan this go round, but I'll remember next time. (I hope.) I really meant to take a picture of them when they were done, about 20 min latter, but I forgot that too.
The Mr. loved them! He went through the first batch and I only got ONE!!! The second went pretty fast too so the picture there is all I have left and I'm sure it will be gone soon too.
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pssst.
if you need florida oranges there's a tree in my yard.
take em.
also, trees in neighbors yards.
free oranges
before the squirrels cut em all down and leave rotting mush piles in the lawn to run over w/ the mower, collect ants and step on, stink and mold, you get the picture
Thanks for the orange offer! I have a tree here too but it got hit by lightning before we moved in and now the oranges taste bitter and like crap.
So I wanted to try LMNO's cheese pocket meat loaf, or rather the Mr. just really wanted meat loaf. I have made it no secret to him that I HATE meat loaf having repeatedly stating that meat should never be made into a loaf. This however, does not seem to stop him from requesting meat loaf for dinner constantly.
I gave in this day and prepared the meat loaf, but not just any meat loaf! This I christen FAIL LOAF. I attempted to follow LMNO's recipe as close as I could but I was missing some things and had to improvise. Most notably I had to use beef and not freshly ground venison, I was also missing the pepper and I really don't like fennel seeds. Also I don't have tiny meat loaf pans so I had to use just one big one.
Well I mixed the beef with the things I did have: egg, bread crumbs, minced onion, ect. Then placed half the mix in the pan and covered it with cheese. I used much too much cheese and while I did well not to bring the cheese all the way to the edge I still used far too much.
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I then covered the cheese with the remaining meat and set it to bake. I most likely overcooked it though it's hard to tell as I did not set a timer and all. When I did take it out of the oven I noticed that the meat loaf was swimming in a sea of oily fat. (YUCK) Some but not all of the cheese had managed to escape the pocket too.
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Over all it was not bad, but it most certainly was not the culinary masterpiece that I sought to recreate. I had an obligatory two slices and the Mr. wolfed down the rest. He liked it, but then again he also likes 'meat flavored cardboard' so.... Meh. Looking back I'd say that perhaps my inherent hatred for meat loaf unconsciously sabotaged this attempt, but really I think it was just incompetence. :?
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don't be so hard on yourself.
I tried the cheese-pocket meatloaf also, and failed spectacularly.
I think the trick is to let it cool completely before atempting to slice it, or all the cheese will leak out one end. and yeah, meatloaf ended up in about three inches of oil when I took it out of the oven.
1) use leaner meat (90% or so)
2) use more bread crumbs (helps absorb the fat).
3) use less cheese.
4) what kind of cheese was it? some cheeses release a lot of fat when melted.
5) that salad looks good. what's in it?
6) lol, book of mormon.
Less cheese? :cry: Was kind of hoping to try this recipe and smother it in cheese. Wah.
Quote from: Rabbi LMNO on October 24, 2008, 02:13:19 PM
1) use leaner meat (90% or so)
2) use more bread crumbs (helps absorb the fat).
3) use less cheese.
4) what kind of cheese was it? some cheeses release a lot of fat when melted.
5) that salad looks good. what's in it?
6) lol, book of mormon.
1) good call.
2) can't. GF is a glu-tard. we use diced potatoes instead of breadcrumbs, which actually makes the regular meatloaf a thousand times better, but doesn't seem to work for this recipe.
3) what?
4) Muenster. Which is, admittedly, fattier than the fontina you mentioned in your recipe.
5) agreed.
6) probably hollowed out to hide the dope stash.
Re: 3... I should have been more specific. 3 related to 4, in that if you use an oily cheese, you shouldn't use as much. cuz of the oil.
I used fontina, it melts like a dream. Mozzerella would also be good.
Diced potatoes? Sounds cool, but chunky. Would rice flour work?
dunno. I'm not a big fan of rice flour, actually. I prefer chickpea flour and/or corn flour. usually mix the two to approximate the properties of wheat flour. Ad for the potatos, you just have to dice them really small. Shredding them would also work.
Thanks guys. I'll try it again sometime with the suggestions you have added. I used a sharp provolone cheese because the grocery store did not sell fontina and I did not want to drive all the way to whole foods. I will try to get leaner meat, but I get stuck with what they have in the meat department too. My step Dad says that at Publix you can get the meat guy to grind up cuts of meat for you, but they won't do that at Albertsons.
I only used about a handful of bread crumbs, your right I should have used more. That salad is sauteed zucchini, squash, red onion, and baby bella mushrooms over fresh spinach and a few cherry tomatoes. The Book of Mormon was given to me by the best door to door salesmen evar! (I think they were selling Amway, or shares of LDS?)
Quote from: East Coast Hustle on October 24, 2008, 10:18:48 PM
dunno. I'm not a big fan of rice flour, actually. I prefer chickpea flour and/or corn flour. usually mix the two to approximate the properties of wheat flour. Ad for the potatos, you just have to dice them really small. Shredding them would also work.
chickpea flour?
i'm currently in the posession of quite a quantity of chick peas, but i'm still recovering from my previous hummus binge :)
i suppose chickpea flour is ground chickpeas? would dumping a handful into a blender work, or would that destroy or damage the blades of the blender (depends on the type of blender, i suppose)
are you asking me how to make chickpea flour?
1) go to local health food store/hippie co-op/whole foods
2) find part of store with different kinds of flour
3) buy some chickpea flour. more often found as garbanzo bean flour.
your technique reminds me of Cain's :)
Instructions unclear. The coconut exploded.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on October 16, 2015, 08:21:43 AM
Instructions unclear. The coconut exploded.
Did someone allow you in the kitchen again???
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on October 16, 2015, 04:07:05 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on October 16, 2015, 08:21:43 AM
Instructions unclear. The coconut exploded.
Did someone allow you in the kitchen again???
I might possibly have wandered in while unattended. Maybe.
BAD ROGER.
SHE NEVER SAID THE COCONUT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OUT OF THE SHELL.
I DON'T SEE HOW THIS IS MY FAULT.
Your handlers need to install video monitors to prevent these kinds of things from happening.
I think he needs one of those invisible fence shock collars. It's the only way he'll learn.
Quote from: LMNO on October 16, 2015, 07:24:57 PM
I think he needs one of those invisible fence shock collars. It's the only way he'll learn.
You know, that's not a bad idea at all. Someone should message his wife post-haste.
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on October 16, 2015, 07:26:24 PM
Quote from: LMNO on October 16, 2015, 07:24:57 PM
I think he needs one of those invisible fence shock collars. It's the only way he'll learn.
You know, that's not a bad idea at all. Someone should message his wife post-haste.
I am oddly aroused.
Does anyone else hate the taste of chickpea flour? IMO, it tastes beany and grassy and bitter.
Quote from: Nast on October 16, 2015, 09:55:49 PM
Does anyone else hate the taste of chickpea flour? IMO, it tastes beany and grassy and bitter.
Yep, I don't like it at all. Which is funny, because I love chickpeas and most chickpea products.
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on October 16, 2015, 10:22:16 PM
Quote from: Nast on October 16, 2015, 09:55:49 PM
Does anyone else hate the taste of chickpea flour? IMO, it tastes beany and grassy and bitter.
Yep, I don't like it at all. Which is funny, because I love chickpeas and most chickpea products.
Chickpeas - aside from hummus - are inedible, and people who like them are bad.
Quote from: Nast on October 16, 2015, 09:55:49 PM
Does anyone else hate the taste of chickpea flour? IMO, it tastes beany and grassy and bitter.
It can definitely have that flavor. I like it for its textural and thickening properties but that flavor is why I always mixed it with some other kind of flour when I had to care about gluten free cooking. And it's pretty much only good for savory applications, it definitely overwhelms anything sweet.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on October 17, 2015, 12:11:00 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on October 16, 2015, 10:22:16 PM
Quote from: Nast on October 16, 2015, 09:55:49 PM
Does anyone else hate the taste of chickpea flour? IMO, it tastes beany and grassy and bitter.
Yep, I don't like it at all. Which is funny, because I love chickpeas and most chickpea products.
Chickpeas - aside from hummus - are inedible, and people who like them are bad.
:lulz: I can't argue with that.