Idle Food - Cooking!

[Ucantalas]

Did some grocery shopping today, decided tonight is beef stew night. Photos will follow.

(I'm also really excited because I got some fresh baked pumperknickel that tastes absolutely delicious and it was like a dollar cheaper than a regular loaf of bread and I just can't wait to have it with the stew...)

[Ucantalas]

Okay, as promised, my stew!

(Most of) the ingredients ready!

 

The ingredients all chopped up

 

The recipe said to use red wine, but I didnt have any... white wine it is!

 

The final bowl, ready to eat! (Including a hunk of bread for dipping.)

[Bjorn]

I'm not much of a cook, but I do smoke up some good bbq.  Just prepped a dozen racks of ribs to smoke tomorrow.  Sit in a dry rub overnight, smoke on Friday, finish baking them on Saturday with a re-application of rub and brown sugar.  A fair amount of work for just the meat portion, but so, so good when done. 

 

 

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm not much of a cook, but I do smoke up some good bbq.  Just prepped a dozen racks of ribs to smoke tomorrow.  Sit in a dry rub overnight, smoke on Friday, finish baking them on Saturday with a re-application of rub and brown sugar.  A fair amount of work for just the meat portion, but so, so good when done. 

 

 

DSC03025.JPG

 

Do you make your own rub?  I'm looking for a good rub recipe I can play around with.  Also a good steak rub.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, I make my own out of a bunch of spices.  I think I have it saved somewhere in an email, I'll see if I can find it and post it later, can't look at this very moment.

[SecretAsianMan]

Yeah, I make my own out of a bunch of spices.  I think I have it saved somewhere in an email, I'll see if I can find it and post it later, can't look at this very moment.

 

You don't have to put up an exact recipe if it's a secret or something.  I'm mostly looking for a good base that I can tweak in my own way.

[Bjorn]

Nah, no big secret.  A good friend just combined two dry rub recipes he found online, because he wasn't satisfied with either alone, made some changes, gave it to me and I've made some adjustments to it.  We both hand out our versions of it whenever someone asks.

[Bjorn]

Dry rub recipe is spoilered.  It makes a pretty fair amount, I just did a dozen racks of ribs and still have plenty left over.  I spray them with apple juice a couple of times during the smoking practice.  Then when I bake them to finish them, I wrap them in foil, spray them with apple juice again and rub some brown sugar on them.  The result is that they almost have their own sauce on them thanks to the caramelized sugar and rub.  Some people still add sauce, but a lot don't.

 

5 tb salt
4 tb sugar
6 tb packed brown sugar
3 tb chili powder
4 tb paprika
1 tb cumin
4 tb granulated (powdered) garlic
5 tb granulated (powdered) onion
3 tb black pepper
2 tb white pepper
2 dry mustard
1 tb chicken seasoning
2 tb dried thyme


use approx 2 tb per slab, or 1tb per half slab.

[SecretAsianMan]

Good stuff Bjorn, thanks!  I think I currently have most of those ingredients and I have a slab of ribs I was planning to make this weekend so the timing is perfect.

[Bjorn]

You're welcome!  Let me know how it turns out.

 

And it's raining here, it's supposed to rain all day.  And I don't have a good covered area to smoke under.  This is annoying.  I don't have to smoke the ribs a day early, but it makes the bbq a lot more enjoyable for me when I don't have worry about cooking as much during it.  

[Bjorn]

Never mind, I was dum.  I have a garden shed I can use if I just clean some stuff out of it.  Still going to get everything smoked today. 

[Bjorn]

So besides smoking ribs, I've spent all day baking my first ever super fancy themed cake.  I've been convinced this was going to be a disaster the whole time.  Never used fondant before, never made custom decorations (bought the flowers, but made the towers and the gate), have only baked a handful of cakes in my life.  But I'm super happy with how it turned out!  My wife always wanted a princess castle cake as a little kid, but never got one.  But you're never too old for a fancy princess castle cake.  The last shot is right after she saw it (she's on the right, daughter's on the left).

 

[undermind9]

excellent use of rolos

[JonCole]

#rolo #yolo

[Bjorn]

excellent use of rolos

 

People who have seen it have been oddly excited about the rolos. 

[Ucantalas]

Thats because everyone loves rolos.

[SecretAsianMan]

Dry rub recipe is spoilered.  It makes a pretty fair amount, I just did a dozen racks of ribs and still have plenty left over.  I spray them with apple juice a couple of times during the smoking practice.  Then when I bake them to finish them, I wrap them in foil, spray them with apple juice again and rub some brown sugar on them.  The result is that they almost have their own sauce on them thanks to the caramelized sugar and rub.  Some people still add sauce, but a lot don't.

 

5 tb salt

4 tb sugar

6 tb packed brown sugar

3 tb chili powder

4 tb paprika

1 tb cumin

4 tb granulated (powdered) garlic

5 tb granulated (powdered) onion

3 tb black pepper

2 tb white pepper

2 dry mustard

1 tb chicken seasoning

2 tb dried thyme

use approx 2 tb per slab, or 1tb per half slab.

 

I tried this out a bit tonight.  I changed it up some because of what I had in my kitchen and my own personal tastes.  Still needs some tweaks but overall I thought it was pretty darn good.  I'll definitely be messing around with it in the future.  Thanks again Bjorn!

[Badfinger]

People who have seen it have been oddly excited about the rolos. 

 

This is the first time in years I have seen or thought about a rolo.

 

You did an awesome job. The last picture speaks volumes.

[osmosisch]

That last picture made me vicariously very happy. Wonderful!

[YoThatLimp]

So I have switched work schedules and have considerable less free time, so I made my first crock pot meal. I made a pulled chicken for sandwiches. 

 

- threw in 6 super thin chicken breasts froze

 

In a bowl

- 1 small bottle of Sweet baby Rays bbq sauce

- 1/4 cup olive oil

- 1/4 brown sugar

- 1 tsp garlic power + onion powder

- salt and pepper to taste

 

Poured the sauce on the breasts and let it sit on high for 4 hours and pulled it a part. The sauce is my favorite bbq sauce out there, but the additions made it a thinner consistency and helped soak the pulled chicken. 

 

Served it on a french roll and oh man, so damn good. 

 

Does anyone have any other crock pot recipes? 

[JonCole]

This is my approximation of filipino adobo in the slow cooker - 

 

up to 4 lb of chicken breast/thighs or pork butt

3/4c soy sauce

3/4c cider vinegar (white vinegar works fine too, but I like cider)

1/2c water

bay leaves to taste (probably 2-3 would be fine for most, but I like my adobo spicier so I add a few more)

1/2 tablespoon black peppercorn

few cloves of garlic, minced

white onion, cut in half and sliced in 1/3-1/4in slices

 

Throw it all in a crockpot. I usually put the bay leaves and peppercorn in some cheesecloth and fish it out when it's all done so I'm not chewing on woody stuff. Cook it for 3 hours on high, check it. You want it to practically pull apart for easy shredding.

 

Serve over jasmine rice.

[YoThatLimp]

This is my approximation of filipino adobo in the slow cooker - 

 

up to 4 lb of chicken breast/thighs or pork butt

3/4c soy sauce

3/4c cider vinegar (white vinegar works fine too, but I like cider)

1/2c water

bay leaves to taste (probably 2-3 would be fine for most, but I like my adobo spicier so I add a few more)

1/2 tablespoon black peppercorn

few cloves of garlic, minced

white onion, cut in half and sliced in 1/3-1/4in slices

 

Throw it all in a crockpot. I usually put the bay leaves and peppercorn in some cheesecloth and fish it out when it's all done so I'm not chewing on woody stuff. Cook it for 3 hours on high, check it. You want it to practically pull apart for easy shredding.

 

Serve over jasmine rice.

 

That sounds great!

[Bjorn]

The Toast is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sites:

http://the-toast.net/2014/09/04/eighteen-kinds-people-comment-recipe-blog/

[MrHoatzin]

Crock pot is super forgiving with chicken. One thing to remember is to always do higher temp for 4 hours—if you do the lower temp for 8 hrs the bones will explode and it will be near impossible to eat. There is this tamarind chutney that is not very sweet, sold in jars in hippie food places. I can't remember what it's called. Just lay the chicken (with maybe baby potatoes, chunks of carrot, peas, whatever veggies you got at hand) on the bottom, cover it with the chutney and forget it for four hours. Any kind of canned pasta sauce works as well.

[Thrik]

Was given some sponge cakes at work and asked to use my imagination for cake Wednesday.