We should have a "What are you cooking?" thread. Now we do.

[EBK]

Something that drives my sister up the wall is my insistance on cooking with my good cast iron pan. It needs more oil than nonstick if you want things to not, well, stick to the bottom, but I like it. You can heat it up as much as your stove will allow, you can use any damn sort of utensil you like, metal or otherwise, and when cleaning it, you can go to town on it with the steel wool.

I love cast iron pans too.  The one is use most is a Wagner that is at least 60 years old.  Perfectly non-stick.  The cornbread I made two days ago had a very nice crust that I just can't achieve otherwise, and it slid right out cleanly.

[davent]

Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake in which i always forget the cranberries...

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/free-range-fruitcake-recipe-1926833












So far, Thursday mixed the dried fruit and rum, let sit for 24 hours then simmered the mix along with apple cider, sugar, unsalted butter, spices and salt. Tomorrow will mix in the dry ingredients, eggs and toasted pecans, bake for a couple hours then it's daily brandy spritzes for a few weeks to ready for the first taste.

We used to have a small Italian bake shop 'round the corner with amazing fruitcake this time of year, the baker retired and that was the end of good fruitcake for us for too many years. First made this five years ago and it was by the best we'd eaten since he retired. His cake was not cheap and making this you can see his prices were justified.
Stay safe.dave

[davent]

Saturday night dining in for two.

Slow roasted Arctic Char fillet, paste of panko, dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon juice & zest, rice vinegar, tarragon  from the garden, parsley, salt & pepper.

By flashlight, duck fat grilled fingerling potatoes & baby Japanese turnips, charred red Napa cabbage.

Northern Spy apple pie by my wife.











All the best, enjoy your weekend!
dave

[davent]

Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake in which i always forget the cranberries...

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/free-range-fruitcake-recipe-1926833
...
So far, Thursday mixed the dried fruit and rum, let sit for 24 hours then simmered the mix along with apple cider, sugar, unsalted butter, spices and salt. Tomorrow will mix in the dry ingredients, eggs and toasted pecans, bake for a couple hours then it's daily brandy spritzes for a few weeks to ready for the first taste.

We used to have a small Italian bake shop 'round the corner with amazing fruitcake this time of year, the baker retired and that was the end of good fruitcake for us for too many years. First made this five years ago and it was by the best we'd eaten since he retired. His cake was not cheap and making this you can see his prices were justified.
Stay safe.dave

Home stretch, dry ingredients, eggs and pecans into the wet, pan and bake, almost two hours in the oven, a single dousing of brandy, couple more weeks worth of brandy to go.







In the meantime, unassigned partial carton of heavy cream in the fridge equals butter chicken. Grilled chicken thighs, papadums cook in a bit of oil worked a charm.






Safe wee, take care.dave

[davent]

Another week another soup with garden grown dried beans. This time a bag of red mixed mystery beans from the freezer, red lentils, canned chickpeas, ramen noodles, chicken stock, onions garlic, tumeric, cumin, cayenne, yougurt, baguette and butter, always a side of salad. Might be one more bag of our dried beans in the freezer.





Still have garden grown tomatoes, peppers and carrots for salads, walk around today revealed radishes, lettuces and other greens still looking good out there even after a couple worthy snowfalls.


Take care.dave

[davent]

A few more radishes found today, watermelon radishes, the one that was sliced open only a little bit of red which is disappointing in and of itself, good taste and texture.





Dinner of beef and barley stew with whole wheat sourdough. The stock bones were meaty enough i probably could have got away without buying a chunk of blade. Beef stock, blade roast, pearled barley, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, baby turnips, shiitake mushrooms, wine, thyme, parsley.

Rice pudding using arborio rice, a mix of soy milk and heavy cream, honey, vanilla, orange peel, cinnamon and nutmeg. Topped with currants, dried wild blueberries, 10%, very rich yogurt.

[davent]

Pizza baking moved back inside for December.

#1 - Brussels Sprouts, bacon, provolone cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, Arbol pepper flakes, Aleppo pepper

#2 - Roasted portobello mushroom paste, herbed goat cheese, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, parsley, balsamic glaze.








All the best in December, dread this month, take care.
dave

[davent]

Quick one for a Saturday, stir fried sirloin steak strips atop fresh lo mein noodles with cucumber, garlic, arbol chili, fish sauce, lime juice and zest, sambal oelek & mint. Simple, quick, light and fresh, for whatever reason reminds of summer.




Take care.dave

[davent]

Yesterday was my wife's birthday and her choice for a meal was lobster mac 'n cheese... again this year, wanted so bad, she made it. She's been making scratch mac 'n cheese since before we met so it's always been hers to do, i bought the cheese and stayed out of the way.

Roux of old orange cheddar & gruyere, Shropshire bombs randomly scattered throughout, topped with grated cheddar/gruyere, panko, parmesean & Aleppo pepper before baking, finished with lobster and chives which we have still coming from the garden.









See ya.dave

[davent]

Last of the watermelon radishes proved to be the winner, finally a good amount if inner colour, started using it last night. For the salad also still using tomatoes and peppers  picked the end of October, here Sunrise Bumblebee cherry tomatoes & Indigo Blue Berry, Tolli's Sweet Italian pepper. Lots of tomatoes still coming along and a few peppers.






Here comes the weekend, take care.
dave

[davent]

Four for four with pasta so far this week.

Jar of 2019 tomato sauce, sauteed onions/celery/garlic/mushrooms/arbol pepper flakes, first time with cheese tortelinis, next time some curly pasta and sauteed shrimp, both worthy and fast to go together.






The end of pasta for this week.
dave

[davent]

Dinner for two, my mish-mash-what's-in-the-house take on Shakshuka or, eggs poached in tomato sauce,  garden salad on the side.

Freezer - spicy Hungarian sausage
Pantry - 2019 jar of backyard tomato sauce, dried arbol chilis, 2020 garlic
Fridge - eggs, celery, half a red onion, October harvested backyard peppers, feta, cilantro, 'The Reaper' hot sauce
Sourdough loaf from the farmer's market...









More watermelon radish, this time Wapsinicon Peach tomatoes with fuzzy skin, more of our peppers, mesclun and mushrooms from the farmers market.


dave

[davent]

Pork chops in Chipotle sauce with crunchy duck fat potatoes, chimichurri sauce and feta cheese. Garden tomatoes ripened in the basement.








Take care, four more sleeps, more cookbooks...
dave

[davent]

Christmas eve at home... all new recipes to us except the shortbread tradition.

Chana Masala, Aloo Gobi, Butter Chicken, Aloo Gobi, basmati rice naan bread, papadums and boubon egg nog to tide us through the cooking. Bunch of different spice blends, curry sauce, grill the chicken, cook the chickpeas needed to be done before starting the actual cook.










Happy Christmas, stay safe.dave

[midwayfair]

Hey, I made curry for xmas eve, too!

I did little red lentils in a cream sauce. I tried doing it as a one-pot for a change and kind of regret it, the lentils didn't quite soak up all the water, and you can't boil it down like you can with some other beans/lentils.