Cooking up a storm
Jun. 1st, 2020 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqI am becoming a better cook lately in spite of myself.
Last last week,atara reminded me that I still hadn't used a red onion I'd picked up the weekend before. I'd bought it with no immediate plan for it other than that, "Red onions have many uses."
I mulled on it over the weekend and decided that while I was using the onion, I could also go through some of the brown lentils and black beans we have in our pantry that are not getting any fresher with age. I cut up the onion into a sauté pan with some olive oil and pondered on what to do while it softened a bit. I noticed that we had a head of garlic that was getting up there, so I minced up a few cloves and tossed those in when the onion was almost done. Once it smelled pretty good I dumped in 3/4 cup each of Basmati rice and brown lentils. I stirred it all together and let it cook for a couple of minutes before I poured in a can of black beans (along with its liquid) and then added 2 cups of hot water with some powdered chicken stock stirred into it.
I added the usual spices one would add to these things: chilli, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, cumin (whole and ground), garam masala, ground coriander and smoked paprika. And a bay leaf, of course. I also added a small can of crushed tomatoes when I realized it would need more water.
Some of these spices were to try and compensate for a major derp on my part; I grabbed the wrong container and dumped in a big whack of cinnamon when I meant to add more chilli powder. I had not wanted the cinnamon to be such a dominant flavour in the dish, so I added other things that I hoped would compliment it. My efforts worked overall, but it ended up not quite being the flavour profile I'd wanted.
I dished out a portion and tossed a fried egg on top so that I could call it breakfast.
It still needed ... something. I cooked up the rest of the ground pork in the fridge with some ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato paste and a dash of dashi. It definitely improved the dish.
I made some Irish soda bread last week as well. I followed a recipe, but it's still a bit nerve-wracking for me when I try making a new dish for the first time. I followed the recipe exactly, but when I pulled it out, a quick test with a toothpick showed that it was not entirely cooked in the middle. Atatara's advice, I set the oven to 350, put the break back in, then shut off the oven and let it coast for a bit. Worked like a charm. I will know next time to test it before taking it out of the oven.
I have come pretty close to perfecting my home-made breakfast sausages. The next time I make these I will add a bit less sage, but otherwise the balance of ingredients is spot on.
One other trick that I have employed is weighing out the individual sausages to ensure they are all the same size, and then pressing them out in a round cookie-cutter to get them all the same shape and thickness.
The ones in this picture were weighted out, but I had not thought of the cookie-cutter trick when I made them, so they're a little uneven.
Last last week,
atara reminded me that I still hadn't used a red onion I'd picked up the weekend before. I'd bought it with no immediate plan for it other than that, "Red onions have many uses."I mulled on it over the weekend and decided that while I was using the onion, I could also go through some of the brown lentils and black beans we have in our pantry that are not getting any fresher with age. I cut up the onion into a sauté pan with some olive oil and pondered on what to do while it softened a bit. I noticed that we had a head of garlic that was getting up there, so I minced up a few cloves and tossed those in when the onion was almost done. Once it smelled pretty good I dumped in 3/4 cup each of Basmati rice and brown lentils. I stirred it all together and let it cook for a couple of minutes before I poured in a can of black beans (along with its liquid) and then added 2 cups of hot water with some powdered chicken stock stirred into it.
I added the usual spices one would add to these things: chilli, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, cumin (whole and ground), garam masala, ground coriander and smoked paprika. And a bay leaf, of course. I also added a small can of crushed tomatoes when I realized it would need more water.
Some of these spices were to try and compensate for a major derp on my part; I grabbed the wrong container and dumped in a big whack of cinnamon when I meant to add more chilli powder. I had not wanted the cinnamon to be such a dominant flavour in the dish, so I added other things that I hoped would compliment it. My efforts worked overall, but it ended up not quite being the flavour profile I'd wanted.
I dished out a portion and tossed a fried egg on top so that I could call it breakfast.
It still needed ... something. I cooked up the rest of the ground pork in the fridge with some ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato paste and a dash of dashi. It definitely improved the dish.
I made some Irish soda bread last week as well. I followed a recipe, but it's still a bit nerve-wracking for me when I try making a new dish for the first time. I followed the recipe exactly, but when I pulled it out, a quick test with a toothpick showed that it was not entirely cooked in the middle. At
atara's advice, I set the oven to 350, put the break back in, then shut off the oven and let it coast for a bit. Worked like a charm. I will know next time to test it before taking it out of the oven.I have come pretty close to perfecting my home-made breakfast sausages. The next time I make these I will add a bit less sage, but otherwise the balance of ingredients is spot on.
One other trick that I have employed is weighing out the individual sausages to ensure they are all the same size, and then pressing them out in a round cookie-cutter to get them all the same shape and thickness.
The ones in this picture were weighted out, but I had not thought of the cookie-cutter trick when I made them, so they're a little uneven.
