What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Winger, I've never cooked chicken in a pressure cooker. Should try it sometime, I guess. You'd recommend it? What was your end-goal on the dish?

Jenise-
I'd recommend you give it a try especially if you're in a hurry. I've done chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and pesto which was quite tasty. Very moist and tender. Ready for the table with less than 15 minutes cook time which includes getting the pot up to pressure. Sure, I could probably have made the meal using more traditional methods, but this does a fine job and leaves me free to do other prep work rather than fussing with the pressure pot.

The electric models do require a few more minutes of cooking time (lower PSI), but I do like their advantage of being self regulating and being monitor free. But, like many gadgets, it does run the risk of being under utilized after the novelty wears off. We'' see.

Not sure this answers you're "end-goal" question.

[Jenise]

Not sure this answers you're "end-goal" question.

It does. I wondered what kind of dish you were making--in equivalent terms, did you replace braising or did you replace pan-frying/roasting. Sounds like the latter.

Yup, the latter.

[Jenise]

So last night at the last minute I decided we had to have mashed potatoes. So a twist on a classic bangers and mash, wherein barely and separately sautéed shaved Brussels sprouts were stirred into the whipped potatoes at the last minute for a twist on colcannon, and the whole was topped with a quick onion pickle. Roasted celery on the side. Utterly fantastic with a Foillard Beaujolais.

It is a Monday, cold, dark and snowing so I am making some simple, hot comfort food tonight. Meat loaf stuffed with basil, sun-dried tomatoes and provolone cheese. Roasted carrots on the side along with some buttermilk, chive and camembert cheese mashed potatoes. Definitely a big mug of hot chocolate after dinner while sitting in front of the fireplace catching up on some food related reading.

[Robin Garr]

Palak dal, Indian-style red lentils with fresh spinach, garlic, ginger and aromatic but not fiery spice.

Ended up with 10 cups of quince puree and just finished the second batch of quince paste- Membrillo. Really pleased with the whole process. 3 different quince varieties. Each different in texture, size and taste. Pleased with the Kitchen Aid attachment for making sauce. I would have wrecked my hands trying to peel that tough skin. Cooked the paste in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven, added a few drops of Aronia berry concentrate and loaded it into a 9x9" pan, 1" thick. Cooled at room temp.
Amazing color and brightness of taste from only 2 drops of Aronia. Did a taste comparison with the commercial stuff from Whole Foods. No comparison. The WF was just intensely sweet without distinctive flavor.
Intend to make a glaze for the Thanksgiving quail with a reduction of the paste with some vermouth brought back from Spain.

Plant a quince tree or 2 or 3. I would consider them ornamental with a beautiful flower, most interesting and aromatic fruit and very productive. Enjoy exploring the cuisines using quince in savory dishes. Really, all you need it one.

Membrillo.

Glad to hear your tale. I don't often get quinces but I love their 'apple + floral' smell and taste. They are hell to peel and take forever to cook but I made a great apple and quince pie, and, somewhat to my amazement, the poaching liquid became membrillo (...kinda of its own accord... did I mention that I started the poaching with a bottle of sauternes?)

[Jenise]

It is a Monday, cold, dark and snowing so I am making some simple, hot comfort food tonight. Meat loaf stuffed with basil, sun-dried tomatoes and provolone cheese. Roasted carrots on the side along with some buttermilk, chive and camembert cheese mashed potatoes. Definitely a big mug of hot chocolate after dinner while sitting in front of the fireplace catching up on some food related reading.

Nothing simple about that dinner. Still a bachelor?

[Robin Garr]

Sautéed lacinato kale with tomato, onions and garlic with Italian "sausage" rounds over penne pasta.

We had a pot luck lunch at work yesterday, so I made a quinoa salad for it. It included corn, black beans, finely chopped raw bell peppers, pickled jalapeno, and a cumin-lime vinaigrette. Vegan, gluten-free, and quite delicious.

[Jenise]

Sounds wonderful, Mike.

Last night we had spaghetti. I'm trying to empty the freezer a bit and so I removed to thaw yesterday a baggie that held two round blobs of ground red meat most likely beef, each individually wrapped in saran wrap and with '1/2#' written in thick black marker on each. Only thing is, I wouldn't do that. Would not have apportioned meat or wrapped it in round blobs or written on each blob like that--my style is to just stuff things in the freezer, absolutely certain I'll remember exactly what it is, and then promptly forget. This was the work of someone more anal than me. But who, and how did these end up in my freezer? Must have been a very trusted person as I'd have immediately tossed, not saved, anything even remotely questionable, but what were they? Moose, elk and venison all look like beef, but don't have any hunters among my current cadre of friends, so likely not. But they'd been in my freezer long enough for me to have no trace memory of acquisition, so an old-fashioned spaghetti sauce like the kind I grew up on seemed like just the ticket.

And it was.

Today I have a pot of tomato bisque simmering away. That will be served to friends who are coming to lunch tomorrow, and then we're all going to Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner. So I'm doing a 'lite' lunch of tomato-tarragon bisque with blistered grape tomato garnish, a beet and argula carpaccio, and fennel-lavender salt flat bread, and doing some of the prep work today.

No dinner plans as yet.

Well, it's not often that you get a chance to cook with something you could truly call "mystery meat"!

[Robin Garr]

Broccoli roasted with onions and garlic, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil and grated Grana Padano.

Robin that looks delicious. I'll have to make that one of these days.

Well, it's not often that you get a chance to cook with something you could truly call "mystery meat"!

HAHAHAHA.

I really liked this baked macaroni and cheese from Bouchon (via Saveur), which was really savory without being unrecognizable. I used about half as much nutmeg and somewhat more macaroni than they called for.

[Jenise]

Lunch today: green salad with baked potatoes topped with a shaved black French truffle that I splurged on yesterday in Seattle. We almost never have wine with lunch except in restaurants, but we might have to buck that trend today. Dinner will be grilled mahi mahi, though I don't know yet just how I'll prep or finish it.

[Robin Garr]

Sichuan-style green beans stir-fried with tofu, onions, ginger and garlic in a lightly spicy sauce.

I wouldn't have expected this cooking "hack" to turn out as well as it did, but the method was superb. Mashed potatoes really can be cooked in a waffle iron. Equally good by themselves, or with ketchup, truffle salt, or habanero hot sauce.

I wouldn't have expected this cooking "hack" to turn out as well as it did, but the method was superb. Mashed potatoes really can be cooked in a waffle iron. Equally good by themselves, or with ketchup, truffle salt, or habanero hot sauce.

I gotta try that - it sounds great!

[Jenise]

I wouldn't have expected this cooking "hack" to turn out as well as it did, but the method was superb. Mashed potatoes really can be cooked in a waffle iron. Equally good by themselves, or with ketchup, truffle salt, or habanero hot sauce.

Oh my. Those waffles need fried chicken! Must try soon! (I recently bought my first waffle iron EVER, and have yet to use it. You've just given me a great incentive--presuming the classic thickness waffle would work as well as the Belgian style. I purposefully bought classic.)

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight. Risotto, as a way of putting to use some beautiful black trumpet and hedge hog mushrooms that I bought at Pike Place Market last weekend.

I wouldn't have expected this cooking "hack" to turn out as well as it did, but the method was superb. Mashed potatoes really can be cooked in a waffle iron. Equally good by themselves, or with ketchup, truffle salt, or habanero hot sauce.

Oh my. Those waffles need fried chicken! Must try soon! (I recently bought my first waffle iron EVER, and have yet to use it. You've just given me a great incentive--presuming the classic thickness waffle would work as well as the Belgian style. I purposefully bought classic.)

I think you're right, on both counts. We have only a traditional because I think it produces that crispy on the outside, soft on the inside effect better than the Belgian style.

The changes I made to the recipe were to use a regular waffle iron, omit the green onions and bacon, and substitute Parmigiano Reggiano stravecchio for the cheddar. (Kudos to Costco on that, I got a very nice piece for something like $12/lb.)

[Jenise]

We have only a traditional because I think it produces that crispy on the outside, soft on the inside effect better than the Belgian style.

So glad you said that. I have probably only eaten like six waffles in my whole life, tops, and the classic were crisp where the Belgians were not so this drove my choice, though I supposed that different batters would produce different results. It just stands to reason, in my little pea brain anyway, that thinner = crisper due to the increased ratio of surface to interior. To my eye it's also a more elegant look, and I won't be making dessert waffles that need to catch and hold fruit.

Thanks for the tips--I like your changes.