Idle Cook Club - Veggie Feeds-me: My Body Is Ready

[Cordeos]

Really happy with how this turned out:

 

Spicy Thai carrot noodles. https://food52.com/recipes/60898-spicy-thai-carrot-noodles

[dibs]

I've had an amaretto sour each night for the last 3 nights. I assume that counts for drinks week.

Also, bitters cost €20 which is a lot, but they do something magical in an amaretto sour.

[Cordeos]

I had a busy cooking day today. I made Krupnik

This time I used orange blossom honey, excited to see how it turns out. https://food52.com/recipes/51044-krupnik-polish-honey-liqueur

Also made Pastelon

I made a double recipe, its super filling. http://thenoshery.com/pastelon-sweet-plaintain-lasagna/

[Badfinger]

NEW THEME NEW THEME NEW THEME

 

CROCK POT DISHES!

 

As we turn the calendar to October and the weather finally dips below 80 degrees in North America, it's time to break out the slow cookers and make something hot and savory.

 

If you don't have a crock pot, do not despair. Soups, stews, chili, longer one-pot meals all count. The idea is to make something that cooks together in more than an hour or two.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Credit to cordeos for this thread title.

[Rilen]

Huzzah! I just broke out my slow cooker the other day for asian short ribs. Loved the way they came out, I used:

1/2 c tamari

1/3 c brown sugar

1/4 c rice vinegar

6 cloves garlic smashed

2-4 Tbsp ginger smashed or minced (also to taste, I would have used more if I had it!)

A small handful of birds-eye chilies (this made it super hot, but having it over rice was perfect. I would leave them out if you are heat averse)

4 carrots peeled and chopped

1 small cabbage, quartered and peeled.

pork short ribs, as much as the liquid will coat! (1/2 lb - 4 lbs, I think)

You mix the liquid, carrots, beef. If you can mix the liquid and beef together earlier, all the better. Turn the slow cooker on, it will take 7-8 hours at low or 6 at high. Cover all this with the strips of cabbage. The cabbage keeps it moist while cooking and the flavorful steam breaks it down so it's sweet and delicious at the end! You slide the meat off the bones, shred/toss it all and have it over rice or on a salad! Sorry about the lack of pictures, we had eaten it all before I thought of it.

[Rilen]

I've never heard of this, but it looks smashing. I am surrounded by apiaries where I live so we are always looking for more ways to use up honey, can't wait to get this started. How did you learn about it?

Krupnik: https://food52.com/recipes/51044-krupnik-polish-honey-liqueur

[dibs]

Ooooh, Rilen. I might try those ribs! But with pork ribs!

[jennegatron]

Cheddar potato soup for #Crocktoberfest

[dibs]

Rilen, what sort of cabbage is that ribs recipe using?

[Rilen]

I used a thin green napa cabbage, but I think it would have been much better with a thick Chinese cabbage. It might also be a good idea to rub the cabbage with a tiny amount of sesame oil or other flavorful oil.

[dibs]

Wait. what? Over here they are the same thing^^

[Rilen]

Sorry, I think I meant 'normal' cabbage, ie small green head thin green leaves, vs chinese cabbage, which is almost like bok choy, very long white leaves growing vertically with green tips.

[dibs]

I made them slow cooker ribs and it was delicious!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLlwWFYDAyZ/?taken-by=dibsbibs

[Rilen]

Oh God that looks good! Nice scallions.... Is that a bowl of the juice?

[dibs]

It sure is:)

[Cordeos]

On 10/12/2016 at 2:25 PM, Rilen said:

I've never heard of this, but it looks smashing. I am surrounded by apiaries where I live so we are always looking for more ways to use up honey, can't wait to get this started. How did you learn about it?

A friend is big into infusions and they are  all so delicious.

[YoThatLimp]

I've made a few batches of red sauce that took about 12 hours if that counts as 'slow cooking', I'm going to be using it for a giant pan of baked ziti for a family party.

 

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/the-food-lab-use-the-oven-to-make-the-best-darned-italian-american-red-sauce-ever-recipe.html

 

 

 

The potato soup and the thai posted on this page look great, might have to give it a go!

[dibs]

NEXT

[Rilen]

Arrgh, I waited to post a recipe and now it's off theme! No matter,I will now subject you all to my experience accidentally inventing a new SHREDDED THAI CHICKEN STEW!

I didn't have a plan when I started, but I did have a lot of leftover kimchi liquid. My last kimchi batch was a new recipe that produced much more liquid than usual (not sure why). So I figured it would be a Korean stew. But I had another experiment in my fridge. A few days prior I had tried making a kind of Japanese soup base by browning lots of garlic ginger and peppers in miso, then blending it, and cooking it with sake, kombu, and soy sauce. So I had this miso/monster paste (you definitely could just use miso for this step). So I figured the next day I would make  Japanese soup. But in my tired state, this is what I did:

 
Started with a layer of dried shiitake mushrooms on the bottom of the cooker to keep things off the bottom and soak up juices. On top of this I added a layer of chopped yellow onion and about 4-6 thin purple eggplants cut into rounds. 

My weird paste. Again, you could probably just use a cup of brown or red miso and add several chopped Tbsps of ginger, garlic, and jalapenos or other hot pepper. I used Azuki bean miso.

 

 

My kimchi juice. You could use water, stock, or any liquid you like. I think I only ended up using 1-1.5 cups. I whisked it into the paste to thin it into something like a wet marinade, then at the end of this any left gets poured over everything.

 

 

Not pictured, but in this step I also added 2 extra Tbsp large chunks of chopped ginger. It could have used more. Here is also my secret ingredient, Pickled Green Peppercorn. I started using this stuff a few years ago when I realized that Prikh King was my favorite Thai curry. When I started ordering it in more upscale Thai restaurants I realized that there were often a few of these guys mixed in. You don't really want to eat them, all though they can be quite good if they have been well pan-fried, in a kind of buzzing, Schezuan peppercorn kind of way. 

 

 

I used three of the little guys. Cute, huh?

 

 

Chicken! I used 4 thighs from a local farmer. Straight out the bag, next time I might rub them the night before. Basically I covered the chicken in the marinade made from miso paste and kimchi juice. Then went in on top of the onions and eggplants, which are on top of the mushrooms. 

 

 

Lastly I added the peppercorns, and the stalks/leaves of young ginger. All the farmers around me are stopping growing ginger for the season so they have tons of these tops they don't want. Still playing around with the best way to use them, but this seems to have been effective. Now we're ready to go, we pour the remaining juice over, smell deeply adjust with any seasonings we might want. At this point I realized that I had somehow accidentally re-created Prikh King. It's a spicy ginger based curry, so it's not too crazy, but I think it's amazing that in my sleep-deprived state I had unconsciously made one of my favorite comfort foods without having done it from scratch before. Put the top on the slow cooker and cook 6 hours on low or 4 on high. Or 5 on medium :-)

 

 

The finished product! I took out the ginger stalks and peppercorns, tossed 'em. I shredded the chicken with 2 forks. The eggplant had completely disappeared, but I think it gave everything a nice thickness and stopped it from being too wet. Next time I might throw them in at the last minute or serve it over them. The chicken is delicious, hot without being unbearable, and I've been eating it all week. I've had it over rice, over noodles, and with eggs. Good cold and hot. Definitely going in my recipe book for future uses and tweaks. 

 

 

 

Hope you guys like it! Look forward to seeing what we find to stuff!

 

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Rilen
I am bad at formatting :-(

[Rilen]

NEW THEME  NEW THEME NEW THEME !!!

Out with the ,  with the new!

 

ROOT VEGETABLE EXPLOSION, or, Rattakablooey.
To further celebrate the coming of fall and the chilly times, let's enjoy what bounty nature has left to offer. Parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, yams, the list goes on! These hardy fellows take well to roasting, hold up well in stews, and are all around awesome. Let's celebrate these often overlooked fall friends by seeing how many of them we can stuff in our dishes at once. Try to combine root veggies in a dish, the more the better. Hopefully the veggies are the star. The easiest thing is to throw them all in the over rubbed with a little oil and some herbs. Seriously, it's amazing. Cut em up first or don't. 

Alright, let's get hardy!

[osmosisch]

On 10/24/2016 at 7:01 PM, Rilen said:

 kimchi

You have my attention.

[Rilen]

11 hours ago, osmosisch said:

You have my attention.

You ever checked out Maangchi? She is the lady who really got me into cooking Korean food full time. Her website is fucking amazing but you can also buy a combined ebook set of everything for like 5 bucks. I did that so I can have it on my phone to translate things in the asian grocery. 

Also excellent, and brand new, is Cook Korean! A Comic Book with Recipe, which my mother was kind enough to pre-order for me this summer. 

Over time I've developed a synthesis of the two for what works best for me, I can share my notes f you'd like. I've been making Cabbage & Radish Kimchi, Radish Kimchi, Cucumber Kimchi, Spring Onion Kimchi, Carrot Kimchi, and Mushroom Kimchi, which as far as I know I invented.

[tabacco]

Hey all, as part of a forum cleanup I unpinned this thread, since it's pretty active and will usually be near the top anyway. If anyone's really bugged by that fact, I can repin it. I'm hoping to reserve the pin area for really important threads or community events that are still in the start-up phase though.

[osmosisch]

13 hours ago, Rilen said:

You ever checked out Maangchi? 

Yeah, her tongbaechu kimchi is the one I made one page back. 3 batches later I feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Flavour keeps improving according to my test subjects anyway