11
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What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
I got some dehydrator shelves for my toaster oven and I've been making beef jerky.
the most recent attempt, I made two different batches, following a tactic I think of as "small experiment, big experiment". for one half, the marinade was a recipe I've used before that I tweaked slightly; the other half was throwing together some random ingredients that seemed like they'd work well together. this lets me play around with different recipes while hopefully ensuring I never completely ruin an entire batch.
the "small experiment" batch was a typical teriyaki sauce - soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, ginger - with the additional of sichuan peppercorns. the flavor didn't transfer to the marinade as much as I'd like, I'm guessing because of its low fat content. the next time I try this one I think I'll toast the peppercorns first, then grind them directly on to the jerky, rather than trying to incorporate them into the marinade.
the "big experiment" batch was coconut aminos (a soy sauce analog that I tried and didn't find particularly tasty as a condiment, so it'd been languishing in my fridge), apple cider vinegar, and leftover brine from kimchi. the flavor of this turned out great, more or less what I think of as "traditional" jerky flavor.
that big experiment batch also turned out much more tender than the other one, in a way that I'm going to try to replicate with future batches. but I'm not sure which component of the marinade was responsible for the tenderization. if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them - each of those three marinade ingredients could plausibly contribute to it, but I'm not sure in what amount.
another uncontrolled variable in the experiment is that due to limited fridge space and the time taken in the dehydrator, the big experiment batch spent some of its marinade time in the freezer. I'm thinking that may have had as much to do with the tenderization as anything else.
I've recently read that vinegar acts as a tenderizer. I've been planning on marinading some chicken breasts to experiment.
I'd be willing to bet it was a combination of the vinegar and the kimchi brine that did it. Kimchi jerky sounds fantastic...
I have been eating gluten free lately too try to get rid of that super tired feeling after eating, and it's actually forced me to start making a lot better choices of healthier meals. I have been eating a lot of bean salads, boneless chicken thighs, gf oatmeal with Greek yogurt and peanut butter, potato chips and chicken salad. I have been feeling so much better, I am starting to wonder if there was an allergy there that had been undiagnosed. Also had gf pancakes the other day made with oat flour.... very good, tasted like pancakes with a little different consistency. 100% recommend!
Definitely not allergy but could be an intolerance. There are some doughs that have been rested (not sure if that's the right word) for 24+ hours that are more easily digestible even for those with an intolerance. Napolitano pizza comes to mind, some small bakeries, etc
Yesterday I tried making Chinese style beef shank in the instant pot. It was way faster than the convention method and was decently tender in about an hour vs six hours. I need to work on how to flavor it but I'm impressed at how much time I was able to save.
Anyone has a good recipe for bone in pork shoulder steaks? On sale at the grocery store today so I loaded up.
One of my favorite recipes is a cup of rice two small cans of cream of mushroom soup stired together with rice, and pork shoulders laid on top covered and cooked in the oven 375 for 25 or so minutes. (Edit had the time off), you may need to add a little water too although I don't think I add much if at all depends how liquidy your soup is)
Sounds yummy. Thanks!
After several very disappointing meals from pizza restaurants, I tried my hand at making pizza. Very, simple, pizza. Dough: flour, yeast, water, olive oil, sugar, salt -- allowed to rise in the sun. Sauce: canned diced tomatoes and one can of tomato paste, and added oregano. Cheese: shredded mozzarella. Topping: sausage. We folded the crust over to stuff it with cheese. This was easy to make and the results were awesome. I am never going back to store-bought pizza again.
Awesome, making pizza is one of the most fun and rewarding cooking related things there are, got a pan pizza planned for later this week.
I've been awake more than 24 hours and all my brain could do tonight is box mac and cheese with premade bacon bits in it. I'm falling asleep with the fork in my hand.
I hope you've been able to get some sleep since posting.
I finally bought a rice cooker (zojirushi micom). I love rice, but it's such a pain to make without a cooker that I just never bothered at home, but I've been a LOT more into cooking this year and want to have the option to use rice, since it's in so many dishes. By "finally" I mean that it arrived literally today, so I'm prepping some chicken for teriyaki chicken tonight.
Some pork and chorizo burgers with a red cabbage and fennel coleslaw. Had these for dinner tonight and loved them, the fennel in the coleslaw is going to be a keeper! I'll do it that way for some pulled pork I have plans for in a couple of weeks.
A pumpkin spice protein shake, super delicious but rather calorie dense (myfitnesspal has it clocking in at about 340 calories). I can't really see a way to shave more off though!
Excited for: a batch of lactofermented pickles I just started with cucumbers from my garden. Keeping it simple with garlic and dill this time around, but if they're great then I'll start chucking more things in.
Not so good: a tropical flavoured protein shake. The idea is there, but I think my partner cut up the pineapple too early and it's rather bland as a result. I know I can tweak this and make it better.
I tend to buy cookbooks and work through them thoroughly. My friend got me Woks of Life, so I have been cooking Chinese every day. I'm learning a lot about Chinese ingredients, exploring new grocery stores, and building up some wok skills. I have also recently gone gluten free so it's been a challenge to discover all the things that don't have gluten, especially when they're not in English.
We made a tomato curry with our fresh garden tomatoes and it was absolutely delicious.