What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[Evo]

Some of my favorite meals are those that border on experiments.

Tonight, it was pasta (angel hair spaghetti) with:

Smoked bacon, cooked & crumbled & set aside
Tomatoes, cooked in a bit of the bacon grease for a few minutes, then -
Garlic
Spinach
Gorgonzola cheese

Toss in the pasta and bacon. Whoa baby.

Sounds incredible. I've been so happy to see chefs return to taste as the number 1 requirement of their food. I see a lot of use of bacon and drippings again.

 

[lisab]

I don't eat it frequently - I'm just a recreational bacon consumer .

 

[netgypsy]

I hear you LisaB about the "recreational bacon user".

This must be the night of spinach and bacon because I just finished sauteing frozen spinach I had nuked until nearly done in the drippings of some beef I had sauteed using bacon, garlic, red pepper and sea salt.

I then added the juice from some leftover Indian cauliflower (water, tomato, garlic, cinnamon, clove, mustard, red pepper, tumeric, cumin, sea salt and yoghurt)

than a leftover nuked chicken thigh chopped

and additional yoghurt.

Instant chicken saag from all leftovers but the spinach.

I'm eating that with vermicelli with cherry tomato sauce as a side.

Sooo good! I love leftovers.

I notice yours has cheese let me grate some pecorino romano on my pasta

Is google sick? I can't get to it??

 

[Dembadon]

I don't eat it frequently - I'm just a recreational bacon consumer .

*rolls eyes* Surrreee. You could quit at any time, right?

 

[lisab]

I hear you LisaB about the "recreational bacon user".

This must be the night of spinach and bacon because I just finished sauteing frozen spinach I had nuked until nearly done in the drippings of some beef I had sauteed using bacon, garlic, red pepper and sea salt.

I then added the juice from some leftover Indian cauliflower (water, tomato, garlic, cinnamon, clove, mustard, red pepper, tumeric, cumin, sea salt and yoghurt)

than a leftover nuked chicken thigh chopped

and additional yoghurt.

Instant chicken saag from all leftovers but the spinach.

I'm eating that with vermicelli with cherry tomato sauce as a side.

Sooo good! I love leftovers.

I notice yours has cheese let me grate some pecorino romano on my pasta

Is google sick? I can't get to it??

Wow, that sounds amazing!

Yes Google is fine for me. I was having trouble with all inner webs earlier but I did that microsoft diagnostic thingy.

*rolls eyes* Surrreee. You could quit at any time, right?

Lol, yes I think you fully understand...

 

[netgypsy]

Google is back working. Weird. All the other websites were fine - even Google news, but not the search engine. I have Verizon wireless internet but don't think they were the problem.

 

[turbo]

I am a recreational bacon user. I don't use bacon to wrap cubes of calve's liver and slices of water chestnuts before grilling. At least not often. Could have been accidental. And the inclusion of crispy-fried bits of bacon in the cream-cheese used to stuff jalapenos? Anybody could have done that! It was a mistake, judge!

 

[Moonbear]

Wow, I like Greek yogurt! I've never been a yogurt fan; it always tasted too sour for me. But, yesterday I saw Greek yogurt in the grocery store in some interesting flavors and was curious to buy a few. The one I tried yesterday was blood orange flavor, and yummy! Today, before mixing the fruit on the bottom in, I tasted the plain yogurt on top. A little sour, but in a good way, not bad way, and not overly sour (no pucker factor). Today's flavor was pomegranate. Tasty, but had real pomegranate seeds in it, not just juice, so kind of crunchy, which is strange for yogurt. Tomorrow I'll try mango.

 

[netgypsy]

Yoghurt sourness is very much proportional to its age as I recently discovered. I have some Greek yoghurt that is two months old. Not green and fuzzy so still edible. WOW is it sour though. Isn't it the conversion of lactose sugar to lactic acid that creates the sour? Have to look it up. Greek has more protein and a greater variety of bacteria supposedly. Dr. Oz sure does recommend it. I find the Cabot brand Greek a bit sticky - stickier,thicker, and more concentrated than Dannon plain for example. People who eat a lot of yoghurt almost never get GI upsets.

 

[Moonbear]

Yoghurt sourness is very much proportional to its age as I recently discovered. I have some Greek yoghurt that is two months old. Not green and fuzzy so still edible. WOW is it sour though. Isn't it the conversion of lactose sugar to lactic acid that creates the sour? Have to look it up. Greek has more protein and a greater variety of bacteria supposedly. Dr. Oz sure does recommend it. I find the Cabot brand Greek a bit sticky - stickier,thicker, and more concentrated than Dannon plain for example. People who eat a lot of yoghurt almost never get GI upsets.

I don't really trust Dr. Oz on much. He seems to have bought into a lot of goofy Hollywood fads. The one I got doesn't say anything about the cultures used, but does claim to ave more protein than regular yogurt. I don't really care about that since I get plenty of protein in my diet already. I almost never eat yogurt and almost never get GI upsets, as do lots of other people, so I'm not sure what relevance it is that yogurt eaters also rarely get GI upsets. It only becomes an issue if you're taking antibiotics.

 

[netgypsy]

i certainly don't trust a lot of the people he has on but he does get some good stuff out to people who otherwise would never listen to any doctor.

Antibiotics will definitely do a job on your GI tract. I've often wondered if they aren't part of the obesity epidemic. The wrong bacteria get killed and others that make you fat, increase in numbers. Brazil is now giving free lap band surgeries because they think it will save the country money in the long run.

From what our family biologists and medical people say, when you eat cultured milk products, if you ingest something with nasty bacteria, they can't multiply because the population is so high already. Supposedly the good bacteria greatly reduce UTI's also. I have no documentation regarding this. I'll have to research it since this is not my area of expertise.

I have a cousin who was with the state department in North Yemen, Lebanon, and who knows where else and he said yoghurt was thought to actually lengthen your life over there.

When I lived in Colombia I found it very strange that all their dairy products appeared to be cultured. The butter, regular cream, milk, all tasted very "cultured". Never did get used to it.

 

[turbo]

I have never gotten to spend a lot of time abroad, but living here 50+ years back was a hoot. We got our milk from a dairy farm that had no pasteurization equipment. Walter once told me as a child that he wouldn't have Holsteins on his farm because they only gave "water" and not milk.

He sold chilled raw milk in the classic quart bottles with the paper caps. My mother and my grandmother used to pour off the cream to use separately or to make butter. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

 

[netgypsy]

That reminds me of visiting my grandfather in a town of 600 people and a pickle factory. I made friends with a girl who lived across the street and they also had a dairy that sold raw milk. She wouldn't even drink pasteurized milk. Said it tasted terrible - almost burned. Their cows were tested every day for TB and I don't know what all. It's hard to believe we are so close in time to a world that had no cars, used horses for transportation, no electricity, no computers, no air planes, no TV, home canning by everyone, outhouses. My great grandfather was captain of a sailing ship that went around the horn of Africa. He actually survived yellow fever and his family sailed with him - wife, kids, wife's brother too. I have a picture of him, his wife and a parrot in a big cage. Technology has just exploded. Hard to believe.

 

[ThomasT]

Anybody have good felafal recipes? What I do is soak dried garbanzos for a day, then grind them up with fresh garlic, fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, fresh onion, salt, pepper, flour and a tiny bit of baking soda, then fry them in canola oil. Yummy.

Then dip them in tzatziki sauce (just Greek yogurt with grated cucumber, garlic, and a tiny bit of lemon juice). Fantastic.

Any suggestions/improvements?

 

[turbo]

That reminds me of visiting my grandfather in a town of 600 people and a pickle factory. I made friends with a girl who lived across the street and they also had a dairy that sold raw milk. She wouldn't even drink pasteurized milk. Said it tasted terrible - almost burned. Their cows were tested every day for TB and I don't know what all. It's hard to believe we are so close in time to a world that had no cars, used horses for transportation, no electricity, no computers, no air planes, no TV, home canning by everyone, outhouses. My great grandfather was captain of a sailing ship that went around the horn of Africa. He actually survived yellow fever and his family sailed with him - wife, kids, wife's brother too. I have a picture of him, his wife and a parrot in a big cage. Technology has just exploded. Hard to believe.

Canning goes back to Napoleon, who wanted a way to preserve food to feed his armies. I started canning food with my mother when I was just a kid, and still use that method to put up vegetables, salsas, chili relishes, etc. I have a truck instead of a horse, but sometimes the old ways are the best.

When I was a kid, I rarely ate any butter that was commercially produced. We had really fatty raw milk, so butter and whipped cream for our wild strawberries and biscuits never came from a store.

 

[turbo]

I shouldn't have gone there! Now I have cravings! Split a nice flaky pastry biscuit, and fry it in butter, top with sugared-down wild strawberries, capped off with a dollop of whipped cream. There is no better strawberry shortcake in the world, and I'm missing most of the fixins.

 

[ThomasT]

I shouldn't have gone there! Now I have cravings! Split a nice flaky pastry biscuit, and fry it in butter, top with sugared-down wild strawberries, capped off with a dollop of whipped cream. There is no better strawberry shortcake in the world, and I'm missing most of the fixins.

I'm going to get some biscuits now. I've got the strawberry preserves ...

 

[turbo]

I'm going to get some biscuits now. I've got the strawberry preserves ...

I envy you. People who try to make strawberry shortcake on a base of shortcake or some other substitute have no idea what they are missing.

 

[netgypsy]

Amazing biscuit recipe. Let me go look for it

2 cups COLD unbleached all purpose flour (I keep flour in the freezer)
1 tablespoon baking powder
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter (you can freeze the butter and grate it on the largest part of grater and return it to the freezer until use)
3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening or lard (I used 3 tbsp extra butter)
3/4 cup COLD buttermilk or milk

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees F put a rack in the center of oven

Mix dry ingredients in food processor with steel blade

Add cold butter and process until it looks like oatmeal

Don't overprocess

Transfer mixture to a large bowl

Stir in milk with a rubber spatula or fork until dry ingredients are just moistened

Let dough rest for 1 minute, then dump it on a floured work surface.

Gently roll the dough into a rough 6 by 10 rectangle 1/2 inch thick

With a knife cut rectangle three times across and five times down to form 15 2 x 2 rectangular biscuits. (You can cut round ones with a cutter or an open ended can)

Place dough 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush dough tops with melted butter or milk (I don't do this)

Bake until biscuits are lightly browned 10 to 12 minutes

Serve immediately. You can wrap in plastic wrap and freeze as soon as cool.

The secret is to keep everything COLD - Put the butter back in the freezer until you dump it in with the dry ingredients. Be sure the milk stays in the frig until you use it. Do the very minimum of processing.

These take about five minutes to make and are so light and delicious. Before trying this recipe my previous biscuit attempts were horrible. (So bad they were embarrassing). Once you make these you'll never buy the ones in the can again. YUKK by comparison.

You could try substituting frozen light olive oil in place of the lard but be sure you use LIGHT or the biscuits will taste nasty. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my "round to it" list.

 

[dlgoff]

... We got our milk from a dairy farm that had no pasteurization equipment. ...

He sold chilled raw milk ... My mother and my grandmother used to pour off the cream to use separately or to make butter. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

You're killing me turbo. At age 4, my parents moved here from Arkansas where my Grandmother was the cow milker; sending long streams to each of the begging cats... and me. Haven't drank store milk since.

http://www.homebysunset.com/.a/6a00d834cdafac69e201543876fe44970c-320wi

 

[netgypsy]

YUMMM

If you get a chance - try raw goat milk also. It's amazing. And no there is no "off" flavor. Female goats don't smell bad, in fact they smell really nice.

 

[turbo]

A co-worker of mine years back used to bring in goat milk and cheese for people that wanted it. He was high-up in the financial department, and kept goats as a hobby. He'd barter, but if you wanted to buy the milk or cheese, it was $$ stuff.

 

[lisab]

Female goats don't smell bad, in fact they smell really nice.

Taken out of context, that's really funny .

 

[Jasongreat]

Sometimes the old ways are the best.

One thing you and I see eye to eye to. I love raw milk, won't touch the pastuerized stuff unless I am using it to cook with, since I can't bring myself to pay bout seven bucks a gallon for raw milk only to pastuerize it while cooking. :) I also took up shaving with a straight razor, the craftmanship and quality of the shave can't be found in the disposable junk of today.

Luckily for me there are two or three dairies licensed to sell raw milk in my state. When I lived in CA, there was a dairy that allowed their cows to stay out on pasture and the milking facilities were taken to them, that was awesome milk, and their raw butter actually had a great strong flavor to it and it was the brightest yellow of any butter I have ever seen, I miss it terribly.

 

[ThomasT]

Amazing biscuit recipe. Let me go look for it

2 cups COLD unbleached all purpose flour (I keep flour in the freezer)
1 tablespoon baking powder
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter (you can freeze the butter and grate it on the largest part of grater and return it to the freezer until use)
3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening or lard (I used 3 tbsp extra butter)
3/4 cup COLD buttermilk or milk

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees F put a rack in the center of oven

Mix dry ingredients in food processor with steel blade

Add cold butter and process until it looks like oatmeal

Don't overprocess

Transfer mixture to a large bowl

Stir in milk with a rubber spatula or fork until dry ingredients are just moistened

Let dough rest for 1 minute, then dump it on a floured work surface.

Gently roll the dough into a rough 6 by 10 rectangle 1/2 inch thick

With a knife cut rectangle three times across and five times down to form 15 2 x 2 rectangular biscuits. (You can cut round ones with a cutter or an open ended can)

Place dough 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush dough tops with melted butter or milk (I don't do this)

Bake until biscuits are lightly browned 10 to 12 minutes

Serve immediately. You can wrap in plastic wrap and freeze as soon as cool.

The secret is to keep everything COLD - Put the butter back in the freezer until you dump it in with the dry ingredients. Be sure the milk stays in the frig until you use it. Do the very minimum of processing.

These take about five minutes to make and are so light and delicious. Before trying this recipe my previous biscuit attempts were horrible. (So bad they were embarrassing). Once you make these you'll never buy the ones in the can again. YUKK by comparison.

You could try substituting frozen light olive oil in place of the lard but be sure you use LIGHT or the biscuits will taste nasty. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my "round to it" list.

Thanks. I LOVE biscuits and will do this.

 

[dlgoff]

Taken out of context, that's really funny .

Baaaah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5COm8560JA

 

[netgypsy]

The falafel recipe sound really good. Our local Lebanese restaurant puts a lot of cumin and turmeric in theirs and I don't like them. It's too overpowering.

Love the goat chat.
The smell comment did sound funny.

The reason I mentioned it was because when I would offer friends a taste of the milk or cheese the first thing they would ask was "doesn't it have a funny taste and smell"?? Because goats are reputed to be so strong smelling. But that's only the males, I have heard that milk from does that are in with bucks can take on a peculiar odor. Also if they eat onion or wild garlic, this will also flavor the milk. But we had no onions, wild garlic or male goats on the premises so the milk was free of all weird odors and flavors. Just very very rich and delicious.

I have tasted mare's milk also and it's sweeter than goat milk. The reason I tried it was I read that people in Mongolia drink mare's milk and I think there's another culture that does also. I will say my mare was annoyed at being milked for even that tiny amount. She gave me the LOOK.

We got so much goat milk we ended up freezing a lot of it. We'd let it sit over night in the frig so the cream would rise, separate the cream from the milk, and freeze in previously used yoghurt containers.

We had so much we forgot about a lot of the cream and months later got it out of the freezer. It had morphed into the best cheese I've ever eaten in my life. I used no rennet, salt, or lemon or anything. The cream just turned into cheese from sitting so long in the freezer I guess. I thought bacteria was needed?? I wondered how it cheesed. I milked the goat after I washed her udder with a soap and mild clorox solution, then rinsed it with filtered water. I milked directly into a previously cloroxed thermos jug. I then immediately transferred the milk to the dish washed and again cloroxed plastic containers. The transfer was very fast. So no idea why it ended up cheese.

The cheese stayed good for a year in the freezer. I sure hated when the last container was used up. SIGH. Goat cheese you buy is excellent but nothing compared to what we made by accident.

 

[netgypsy]

hoping for more great recipes

super easy eggplant Parmesan

1 jar GOOD pasta sauce like serafina or Gia Russa cherry tomato
herbs and garlic as desired
1 medium eggplant
6 to 12 ounces mozarella cheese - grated or you grate it

Wash, cut the ends off and stab a medium sized eggplant multiple times
Cook in microwave until soft but not squishy. Start with 8 minutes and go from there.
Grate anywhere from 6 to 12 ounces mozzarella cheese
open one jar or can of GOOD spaghetti sauce - Serafino or Gia Russa cherry tomato are excellent
Slice the eggplant into a square glass baking dish
Layer cheese and tomato sauce and any herbs and garlic you wish to add finishing with cheese
Cook in microwave until cheese melts.
You can layer a drizzle of olive oil in the layers if you wish

this is lower calorie than traditional since the eggplant is not fried and breaded.

 

[Monique]

Recently I'm hosting one diner party after the other and somehow I always feel obliged to make something I've never made before.

So yesterday I had an Italian-style menu that included stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer, they were delicious so I must share

The stuffing:
0.5 cup dried fine bread crumbs
0.5 cup grated Pecorino Romano
2 tbsp chopped flat parsley
1 tbsp chopped mint
2 squeezed garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil

Remove the stems out of button-mushrooms, put a few drops of olive oil inside, fill with the stuffing compress inside and cover with a little mount of loose stuffing. Put in an oiled oven-plate and bake for 25 minutes until mushrooms are soft, filling is crisp and golden.

Next time stuff double the amount of mushrooms

I also made chicory leaves filled with melted 1/4 mascarpone + 3/4 gorgonzola and topping with some parsley. Simple but tasty.

Now I need to think of something new for the next 4 planned diners, I'm thinking of buying a book to keep track of who's had and liked what.. of course I need to check this thread more often.

Are there any tips for tapas-type dishes (without meat)?

 

[turbo]

Monique, my wife has been experimenting with all kinds of stuffing for wonton wrappers. The sky is the limit. Little bite-sized (OK, maybe two bites) appetizers containing cheese, vegetables, meats, sauces, etc. My father and my brother flip over them. You can let your imagination go wild. They are really popular! Stuff those little rascals and bake them until brown on a cookie-sheet lubricated with a bit of peanut oil. They don't last.

 

[Monique]

I love wontons, does she make the dough herself? I once made them a long time ago with a Chinese friend and I remember it was quite a lot of work. I'd be afraid I would mess up the dough somehow.

 

[Borek]

Anybody knows how to tell if the apple pear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrus_pyrifolia) is ripe? Wikipedia says they have tendency to bruise, but the one we bought today (it was cheap like dirt so we decided to try) can be used instead of a hammer, so I guess we should wait.

 

[turbo]

I love wontons, does she make the dough herself? I once made them a long time ago with a Chinese friend and I remember it was quite a lot of work. I'd be afraid I would mess up the dough somehow.

We can get the dough in vacuum-packed plastic envelopes. All the rest of it is imagination and ingredients on-hand.

I make my own home-made pizza sauce, and some of her family-favorites have featured that spicy sauce with cheese and vegetables (with or without meat). Still, you can stick about anything in those wrappers and get a good audience response. Got chick peas, roasted garlic, some onion, etc? Give them a try. Chopped mushrooms would be a good addition, too.

When she gets out a package of wonton wrappers, I just sit down and stay out of her way. The result is always good, even if unconventional.

 

[turbo]

Anybody knows how to tell if the apple pear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrus_pyrifolia) is ripe? Wikipedia says they have tendency to bruise, but the one we bought today (it was cheap like dirt so we decided to try) can be used instead of a hammer, so I guess we should wait.

I haven't ever had one and wouldn't know how to judge ripeness. They sound real tasty from the Wiki page. Real pears should yield to pressure when they are ripe, and they should smell sweet, too.

 

[Monique]

We can get the dough in vacuum-packed plastic envelopes. All the rest of it is imagination and ingredients on-hand.

That'd be nice, I'll check the Asian store. Hopefully they also have some rice paper for making Vietnamese summer rolls.