Jump to content

Cooking Questions 4: More questions about cookery


MisterOJ

Recommended Posts

So for the Irish potluck at church yesterday I made the side of mashed carrots and parsnips. The recipe I found called for just butter and nutmeg.



This recipe turned out to be one of the rare times when the finished product smelled delicious, but wound up being just "okay." I wouldn't call it bad, because it was palatable, but I probably won't make it again. Shame, I really liked the idea of it.



However, this experiment did make me want to try something else with parsnips. I remember my grandmother used to have roasted parsnips when I was a kid and liking them.



Anyone have a good parsnips recipe?


Link to comment
Share on other sites

i love parsnips! they are one of my favorite winter veggies.



they pair lovely with apples and potatoes in a silky soup garnished with rye croutons.



they caramelize nicely in duck fat to pair with a roasted meat.



a parsnip mash is a nice change of pace from potatoes.



shredded and fried they make a nice sweet and earthy crunch on a salad.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just realized I posted in the wrong thread. :o



I made the colcannon recipe offered up in the last thread, and it was delicious. I had to make it vegetarian, though we plan to try it again when the vegetarians aren't there for Sunday dinner.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So I have a beautiful rib roast on the bone for tomorrow. I plan on cooking it for about 6/7 hours at 60 degrees until internal temperature reaches 55/56. Any ideas what would be good accompaniments? I'm thinking red onion marmalade, fondant potato and green beans but not sold

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I have a beautiful rib roast on the bone for tomorrow. I plan on cooking it for about 6/7 hours at 60 degrees until internal temperature reaches 55/56. Any ideas what would be good accompaniments? I'm thinking red onion marmalade, fondant potato and green beans but not sold

Deedles, that sounds pretty delish, actually. My husband would say you need some horseradish sauce of some kind, but that's just him. :)

Anyone have any great ideas for using some really awesome blood orange balsamic vinegar besides using it for fruit?

The stuff is hardly like vinegar at all, really. The depth of flavor it has is eye-crossing. :drunk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was good. I did a celeriac fondant and purée, green beans and gravy as well as the onion marmalade. No horseradish but lots of English mustard on the roast beef sandwiches today.

The blood orange balsamic sounds yummy. The thing about tastes like that though is you almost don't want to cook it and marry it with other things.

I think I'd go with a salad of fresh mozzarella, a sliced orange, dried ham like Parma or similar and dress with the vinegar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was good. I did a celeriac fondant and purée, green beans and gravy as well as the onion marmalade. No horseradish but lots of English mustard on the roast beef sandwiches today.

The blood orange balsamic sounds yummy. The thing about tastes like that though is you almost don't want to cook it and marry it with other things.

I think I'd go with a salad of fresh mozzarella, a sliced orange, dried ham like Parma or similar and dress with the vinegar.

That sounds wonderful! Great idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was stir-fying some veges and a little meat the other eve and realised I wasn't doing the dish any justice with the poor excuse for a fying pan I was using. I mean the pan is adequate for general frying; eggs, sauteing onions, garlic etc - but it simply fails to offer the high heat needed for proper stir frys. And then I recalled with fond reflection the carbon-steel wok I had procured many years ago. Before first use I seasoned it well. And over several months regular use I made sure to clean it with water and a light wipe down. The seasoning had improved to the benefit of the dishes made with it. The carbon cake was magnificent. It would heat up faster every time and it was a joy to cook with it. Then my mum went through one of her spring cleaning phases. I came home one day eager for a glorious wok cooked meal, only to find a steel shell of a thing hanging in the place where my wok would be, scrubbed clean with abrasive steel wool no doubt. Was so disheartened. "Cleaned your wok for you - looks like new now" was well meaning but I can't even remember if I told my mum what she had done. Alas I can't properly call a dish a stir-fry again until I get a better pan or invest the time to season a new wok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually think many pans will do well in stir-frying, if you have the right heat. My complaint is that the U.S. stoves are weak in firepower. You have to go to professional grade home stoves to get the firepower that most homes have in China (double-ringed flame from LPG or natural gas). Also, I tried woks on gas stoves and without the right grill for it the endeavor is more hazardous than it is worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there an ethical way to buy eggs?

I'm not prepared to become a vegan at the moment, but I'd like to support chickens being as minimally miserable as I can.

Ideally I'd like to know if I can do that in a grocery store. I've bought everything from $2 Wegmans eggs to $4 organic eggs to $5 "Happy Egg" brand and everything in between. Many of them have labels like "free range" that may or may not have any real meaning. Sometimes a company offers two products, like "vegetarian fed eggs" and "cage free" eggs, and I'd like both to be true but they only offer them in those two mutually exclusive categories, probably.

If buying Happy Eggs at $5 a dozen is what it takes, fine. If I'm being hoodwinked and the chickens in question are approximately equally miserable, I'll buy my $2 eggs and deal. I'm willing to pay for it but I want to know I'm paying for something real and not just being tricked by some marketing asshole.

People have told me that farmer's markets might be a good bet. I'd certainly consider it but they tend to have narrow windows when they're open, often at weird times. "Tuesdays 12-3" are just never going to work for me. Maybe I can make it work, maybe not; there is a limit to how hard I'm willing to work to do this. (As there is for you, if you eat eggs; if you had to go to Tibet to get ethical eggs, I'd see you back at Wegmans buying $2 eggs next week.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Short of knowing a farmer, I think you need to rely on the $5 variety. Is there no regular, organized Farmer's Market where you live? We have a large official market open 6 days a week in a historic building, and quite a few of the one-day-a-week ones, but the hours are usually better (noon until 7 pm, for example).



In one market area of town (a couple of blocks where fresh produce and live animals (not anymore) were available for more than 100 years), there was a famous egg store, where all kinds of eggs could be purchased, hen's, quail, duck, goose, ostrich etc but sadly the owners got old and retired and sold the store to some trendy hipsters for another kind of shop.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, my question is whether my $5 is doing anything besides padding a marketer's bonus check. If $5 a dozen is the cost of genuinely ethical eggs, fine. I just want to know that that's what's going on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is really no easy way to find out short of reliable sources going out to the farm to investigate, far as I know.

I would recommend you exploring the option of contacting local food co-ops and asking for sources from local small farmers. That way, word of mouth can carry substantial weight in the ethics of the practice, and those are typically cheaper than the $5 cartons. We have a lady who raises her own chickens here selling her eggs for $2.50 per 6. Quantity varies, though, so weeks you get 6 and some weeks you get 10. But if you're willing to do that, it may be an option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would recommend you exploring the option of contacting local food co-ops and asking for sources from local small farmers. That way, word of mouth can carry substantial weight in the ethics of the practice, and those are typically cheaper than the $5 cartons. We have a lady who raises her own chickens here selling her eggs for $2.50 per 6. Quantity varies, though, so weeks you get 6 and some weeks you get 10. But if you're willing to do that, it may be an option.

:rofl:

You do know that 6 @ $2.50 is the same as 12 @ $5.00? :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After seeing Ini's question, I went out to the mall (to look at headphones, not eggs) and stopped at the grocery store, where I see my local No Frills now carries President's Choice free range brown eggs for $4.99 a dozen. They were fifty cents off as an introductory price, and so I bought a carton since I was down to 4 eggs. They are almost double the regular price, but they say the hens are raised in an open concept environment where they are free to roam. I hope I can trust the Loblaws brand.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I have two questions.

  1. I make a lot of curries, so I typically serve them over rice. As you do. But I'd like to eat fewer starchy carbohydrates. I definitely think these curries benefit from having a bit more body to them -- any suggestions?
  2. I got teff flour. Any tips on/recipes for turning it into injera? My lone attempt so far was much too thin.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have two questions.

  1. I make a lot of curries, so I typically serve them over rice. As you do. But I'd like to eat fewer starchy carbohydrates. I definitely think these curries benefit from having a bit more body to them -- any suggestions?

We will sometimes roughly chop up cauliflower and pulse it in batches in a food processor until you have bits the consistency of couscous. We'll saute it up, sometimes with grated carrot and onion, til tender and serve our curry or whatever else over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...