The Food and Beverage Thread

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

Yeah, brining pretty much makes any meat better... huge thing for good fried chicken.

I just did a pork chop butterflied and cooked with some fennel pollen and salt/pepper, some asparagus cooked in rice vinegar and the pork pan juices... not a bad 10 min meal.

Sounds delicious! I love cooking with rice wine vinegar and soaking up the juices in the food or pour it over rice, etc.

I agree about brining meat. Not a large fan of doing it with certain cuts of beef. I rather like the dry age method that I forgot to mention, which makes it magnificently juicy as you can just see by the cutting board barely visible in pick. And that was cheap "top round" that came out amazingly juicy, tasty and as tender as good cut sirloin.

Take a paper or aluminum tray, and poke wooden kebab skewers in it (about 4 inches apart like a ladder). Take the meat out of the package, and wrap it in paper towels. Then lay it across the wooden kebabs and put it in the fridge overnight. Cooks and taste amazing since it allows the meats natural enzymes to break it down by the air.

Also for shrimp, a good method is to let cold water run in a bowl of raw shrimp for like 15-20 minutes and overflow, it really tenderizes it before cooking and washes out the "fishy taste" it sometimes can have! And makes pre-pealing before cooking a snap!

[Stumbleweed]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

Yeah the air dry is great for pork belly and duck breast too.

Where've you been in all these culinary threads? Haven't noticed posts from you, sounds like you know your shizz.

I made a freaky salad that turned out great for a picnic thing this weekend. I roasted cauliflower and some small-diced yams (tossed in oil, salt/pepper, red pepper flakes, smoked paprika) up in a 400-degree oven until they were hitting brown then mixed them in with some cooked quinoa and tossed the whole thing with a vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was made with my homemade mustard, 50 year sherry vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, salt/pepper and 3 cloves of roasted garlic. Turned out pretty damn good -- the tanginess died out after it sat and blended for a while and it was perfect... it was too acidic at first with the vinegar and lemon juice, but I was real happy with it. Vegan!

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

I never knew this thread existed hahaha.

I was cooking all my life, my families are Greek and Italian backgrounds that own restaurants. And I was with a Chinese girl for 7 years, so I got spoiled with her cooking. Things didnt work out I suppose, so I had to rekindle my cooking, and I fell back in love with it. So I am always trying something new. I am close to an Chinese family who owns a restaurant where I live and sometimes help them at. They are like family to me, and use old school methods for their recipes. Rare to have that style around still since most is "fast food" Chinese now. So I am always cooking their style at home too. Good stuff, but I do miss my ex's experimentation with peanut butter sauces, udon and mixing of Asian cuisines.

That salad sounds delicious. I try anything at least once. Never turn down amazing made food, cooked with passion and care.

You should see me in here more often now. :wink:

[Husker_OS]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

I cooked some 3-cheese macaroni for lunch.



Delicious. Takes more effort to cook it myself, but it's worth normally.

[ANDROMADA 1]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

What fruits do you guys put in fruit salad? I was thinking of making one to have to snack on for a couple days and was thinking of putting a pineapple, grapes, oranges, and then slice up a banana whenever I eat it but can't think of anything else to go with it. I don't like cherries.

small marshmellows, pineapple(crushed), mandarin oranges, home made whip cream(kitchen aid+heavy whipping cream), pecans(pieces). This is a tasty treat that is fantastic at any time. All you do is put in a bowl and add the cream. Set in fridge for a hour or 3 and your good to go.

[Jonesy]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

You guys recommend any websites for tasty healthy recipes that don't take long to make? I am on a diet and need to eat low cal but i don't want to just end up eating steamed chicken and vege's every night or i think i'll burn out quick and fall off the wagon.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

You guys recommend any websites for tasty healthy recipes that don't take long to make? I am on a diet and need to eat low cal but i don't want to just end up eating steamed chicken and vege's every night or i think i'll burn out quick and fall off the wagon.

I like AllRecipes, but there might be some searching on calorie content. I do believe there are filters on that.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

You guys recommend any websites for tasty healthy recipes that don't take long to make? I am on a diet and need to eat low cal but i don't want to just end up eating steamed chicken and vege's every night or i think i'll burn out quick and fall off the wagon.

livestrong.com has great healthy and easy to make recipes. Also if you sign up for their newsletter, you get emails with healthy recipes and why certain things are important to remain healthy, like proper water intake, etc.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

My wife just picked two of the largest zucchinis I have ever seen from her garden. I'm going to stuff one, but what to do with the other...

[Jonesy]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

My wife makes a fantastic zucchini and bacon muffin /slice thing that tastes absolutely brilliant. I don't even really like Zucchini but i love these things. You could try something like that?

It's basically (off the top of my head)

Grated Zucchini (we use 4 medium sized ones usually)
cup of Flour
1 egg
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 rashers cooked bacon fat removed
1 cooked onion
1/2 cup grated cheese

basically cook the onion and bacon, Mix it all up and put into muffin trays or into a baking dish and cook in moderate over for about 40mins or until the top has browned and they are solid. Simple but very tasty.

[jeremym480]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

I ate redneck nachos tonight for dinner. It's really easy to make. All I did was bought a container of Lloyd's BBQ at Wal Mart (It would have been much better with homemade Pulled Pork but this works fine too). Put that on top of some Zapp's regular chips add Shredded Cheese, Grape Tomatoes, Black Olives, BBQ Sauce (I used Sticky Finger's Carolina Sauce) and Spicy Ranch Dressing. Then I put it on a fancy paper plate for easy clean up. And there you have it, just about as simple as it gets.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

^Jesus.

As far as the zucchini goes:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/08/the-crisper-whisperer-zucchini-pancakes-recipe.html

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

That actually looks good Jeremy. I'm assuming those chips are regional? I don't recall ever seeing them around my way.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

RIP Food and Beverage thread...

Can one of you mod types move this one to the Neighborhood forum or something so it's not all lost?

[jeremym480]

Re: The Food and Beverage Thread

That actually looks good Jeremy. I'm assuming those chips are regional? I don't recall ever seeing them around my way.

Yeah, I think so. However, they've been around for awhile and have their own website if you're interested.

http://www.zapps.com/cgi-bin/zapps/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapp's

I believe that Lay's now offer's Kettle Cooked Chips which should be comparable.

Also, I originally got the idea from Moe's Original BBQ http://www.moesoriginalbbq.com/eats.html in Birmingham, AL. As you can tell theirs looks much better: