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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 made some delicious chicken broth last weekend because a couple people I knew were sick. Added roasted chicken to ~5 L (a bit more than a gallon) of broth, about 800 g of extra wide egg noodles, and some chopped veggies, let it boil, boom delicious homemade chicken noodle soup. Medicine.
Making broth is easy and SO GOOD. Save your bones and freeze them. When you have 1-1.5 kg of them, roast in the oven for 30 min or so with some onions and green veggies. Toss the lot into well-salted water with celery tops, carrot tops, etc, the stuff you'd often just throw away and simmer with the lid on for 8-12 hours minimum. Refill with water as it slowly evaporates. Scrape the "scum" layer off the top (it's just minerals that are encapsulated by fatty things that are broken apart by boiling) and throw away. Remove all the bones and remnants of veggies, just worth pitching. Filter your remnant liquid to remove little bits of faff - I use my French press - and you're ready to go. If you put a small amount of it in the fridge for 20 minutes, it should gel, which is a sign you have an exceptionally delicious and rich broth. It is so good, you can just drink it straight while warm, and it won't be overpoweringly salty - just refreshing.
We got a smoker last summer and have been doing a lot of smoked whole chickens. I do this with the remainders every time, and I gotta say the broth from smoked chicken is extraordinary.
Another fun variant for people who like Mexican flavors: follow same steps up to the “add noodles” part, but instead add some ground cumin, oregano, and chipotles in adobo (or just the adobo) to taste. Throw in some hominy, and then let it simmer for a while to let the hominy absorb the chicken flavor and the broth absorb some of the hominy flavor. Bam, you’ve got some not-so-authentic-but-still-delicious chicken posole. Serve with a big pile of fresh shredded cabbage, salsa, onions, radishes, cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and dash of oregano on top. It’s so good on a cold, rainy day.
Hell yeah that sounds delicious
Damn, your process sounds amazing. I make broth any time I buy a full broiler, but I've only ever gone through a 3-5 hour simmer. I usually chuck the bones into the pot with some olive oil and brown them up before adding water and have never tried actually baking them (well, more than they were baked when I made the chicken in the first place). Is there a noticeable different between roasting them and browning them in the pot?
I do. I will note I put the fat/marrow melt from the roast into the pot as well.
It makes a more well-rounded and intense flavor. It sometimes cracks the bone surface (exposed with no meat covering it, as with the first time you bake it) so more good minerals and marrow flow out into the broth. Vegetable oil is usually undesirable in these, since it doesn't brown as well. The oven gets more heat on more area than browning in the pot, which only gets point of contact.
I made pretty great leftover burgers. The meat was ground pork/beef mix, added some leftover egg wash and panko bread crumbs because why not and seasoned the mix with spicy bean paste (intended for mapo tofu). Probably most foodtubers would crucify me for this, but it was excellent, probably could've been crispier but I didn't want to burn it.
Other toppings were just fresh cucumber, iceberg lettuce, red onion and mix of chili crisp oil and mayo. And of course american cheese.
I want to start my comment with a question: how much does everyone pay for beef per pound? Specifically referring to anything other than ground or stew meat.
I went to a Mexican butcher shop in the Phoenix (Arizona) area to get some carne asada, and it was $16/lb (not including the marinade they added after weighing). Bought 3lbs, and it was the largest 3lbs of meat I've ever received in recent history. (Maybe just because it was sliced thin.) But the price seems a little high? Walmarts here charge at least $12/lb for any cut, so that much more wasn't too bad, but I still feel like $12/lb is a lot.
But I threw it on the grill and it turned out amazing. Made some loaded Mexican fries and it was a very satisfying meal.
Can you share more about the source/quality of the beef? Those can vary wildly and will likely have significant impact on the price. The local Safeway et al is around $12 per pound as well, but I have no idea where it's from - other than broadly USA - or quality. So it sounds like our baseline in the same.
We have a little local mom and pop grocery store with a great butcher just down the road and they'll be able to tell me the general region they bought from and the producer - American West, Harris Ranch - and we can have a conversation about the quality of the meat. Usually they are around $16 these days, so that seems like that aligns too.
My recent discovery is that the real small scale ranchers and chicken/pig farmers sell at the farmers market for prices similar to our local mom and pop shop. The farms are usually within 100 miles of where we live and if we wanted to could go check out the facilities. I was pretty shocked to see that I could get chicken for a similar price to our local and beef for even less (~$14-16 a pound). These farms are full free range, veg diet. The yolks of the eggs we get are a beautiful bright red, which to me means they are getting to forage for bugs, and are rich and delicious.
Pre all the price craziness I always felt like buying meat or eggs at the farmers market was a real luxury - like when I was feel pretty flush - but now it seems like one of the few places that prices haven't risen. I've heard we seeing a squeezing of prices where the low, low prices are skyrocketing while luxury prices are fairly stable. I've made the full switch over to the farmers market goods - minus chicken when my partner is eating as she says it too "gamey" for her - and it feels like the quality of the goods and the treatment of the animals is waaaaay better. And I'm spending no more than going to my local mom and pop.
Learning that has been my life highlight since Trump taking office. Also the loaded Mexican fries sound incredible and you might have just picked our dinner menu for tonight ;)
I honestly have no idea where the beef is sourced from in either case.
I'd rather not try to strike up that conversation at the Mexican butcher. Tensions are high here in border states and they probably don't want to answer questions from a random white guy. (They even had a sign on their door saying law enforcement is not allowed to enter without a warrant.)
If I consumed a lot of meat, I'd consider doing one of those farm orders where they give you all the cuts from 1/4 of a cow or similar. But I'm only cooking for two, and we're trying to reduce meat consumption in general, especially when it comes to red meat.
Man, I'm so sorry to hear that, it's weird times for sure. I totally get keeping a low profile. I love our local mexican market's marinaded carne asada. I've tried to reproduce but just can't get it as good.
And totally get the sizing. Ours sells by the pound which makes it easy. Though I do dream of owning one of those top opening garage freezers one day. That's the dream!
Meat production is basically cornered by a small number of companies. It would not surprise me that mass market meat is more expensive simply because of market capture.
Costco sold me something that tricked me. It was a chocolate covered coconut bar that was supposedly a healthier version of Mounds. It was not really healthier and I was completely unable to control myself. I think I ate more calories this week that I usually do in a month. Every time I ate one I just wanted another.
But on more positive things, I discovered that kale in soup is fire. Especially in a good lentil soup. I made a huge batch which barely fit in my pressure cooker, and froze it in those magical little silicone ice trays that give you 2-cup cubes. I was eating good.
I also bought some lavash and made some hummus with the intent to make some salad wraps. But the lavash is so brittle it just falls apart. So disappointing! But for what it’s worth, the stuff I put together did taste good. It just fell apart really easy.
My sourdough has become a little odd lately, but in a good way. It turns out almost creamy. I’m considering getting a booth at a swap meet or something and selling slices covered in peanut butter because it’s unconventional but really good.
I'm also a huge fan of collards in soups and stews. (Pretty much interchangeable with kale, but i find collards easier to grow, so cheaper for me.)
If you haven't already, I suggest trying caldo verde, a portuguese greens and potato soup. Really easy to make and very warming/comforting!
Last night I did Bulgolgi Beef with Broccoli, white rice and pork dumplings. Most of the effort goes into making the filling for the dumplings and subsequently filling them but I've got a pretty good system down.
The meal turned out quite well but, for the amount of time it took, it's certainly not a week night meal... Well, maybe the beef/broccoli/rice part.
Side note: I may start experimenting with freezing the cooked dumplings as an 'easier' week meal. Anyone have any experience with that? Is it better to freeze them raw and cook them from frozen?