This weekend I have completely finished off the partial box of Irish Breakfast and the 3/4 full box of Peach Tea.
Now I am putting a dent in the 48-count Red Rose tea and the Tippy Assam.
It is a pity that I had already finished off my nice, strong English Breakfast.
It’s time to buy more tea. *g*
Do any of you cook Chinese food much? I have a leftover pork roast, and I want to turn it into that brown melty pork that you sometimes get in restaurants… only every store-bought sauce I have ever tried for this has been too salty and/or too sweet and usually not even close. I don’t even know what to call the particular dish to look it up.
So can any of you read my mind? Can you tell me how to make it from scratch?
ETA: The answer is to use authentic oyster sauce instead of a mixed sauce from the supermarket
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Other upcoming meals —
Collard Greens and Lentils cooked down with fried mustard seeds, nigella seeds, coriander, chillies, and garlic added at the last.
Asparagus. Something special with asparagus. It will probably be with peas and tortellini and either a butter & lemon sauce or something creamy.
Chili
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Notable recent meals —
I made a lovely curry (onions, garlic, ginger, coriander stalks, curry powder, and tomatoes) with potatoes and string beans.
And last night there were scrambled eggs with onions, garlic, mushrooms, artichoke hearts (the vegetable truck has had lovely artichokes lately!), smoked oysters, and cheese. Thanks to the lovely Meghan for the idea.
It has been cold, and I have been getting home kinda late, so I haven’t been doing as much cooking lately… but I was finally home for a weekend and went to the produce stand… and now I am not sure I will get around to cooking all my food before it goes bad.
So here’s the thing — I am listing a bunch of ingredients, and you and I will think of fun way to put them together.
Ingredients
Vegetables/Green matter:
Cauliflower (1 head)
Broccoli (1 stalk)
Red bell peppers (2)
Potatoes (3 lbs)
Cilantro (1 bunch)
Romaine Lettuce (the inside half of 1 head)
Roma tomatoes (20?)
Unfrozen Meat:
Turkey andouille (1 1/2 left)
Frozen Meat:
“rabbit”
random beef (ground and in steaks)
And I have a good selection of legumes.
Ideas
Dish 1: Aloo Gobi — nope. This was a new dish for me, but now I’ve made it several times and it is no longer as exciting… might still make is as a good use for lots of potatoes and cauliflower.
Dish 2: Red beans & Rice w/ andouille — maybe. I cringe a little because my momma always made red beans and rice with a piece of pork or some ham hock… but it’s a possibility.
Dish 3: Creole Chicken or Shrimp — I’d have to buy the meat product, but it would use up all those lovely tomatoes in one go.
On my stove right now I have a pot of chili cooking. That was to use up a collection of miscellaneous beef leftovers. I used the same mix I have always used (and strongly recommend because all the spices come in individual packets instead of all mixed together)… but it seemed like a lot of salt as it went in… apparently I have stopped cooking with as much salt as I used to. This is odd. So I have already used two potatoes to soak up the saltiness — yesterday’s dinner was potatoes boiled in chili. 🙂
In other food news — I have only one bagel left in my freezer — Woe!
ETA:Okay, the “rabbit” is strange and exciting, but it’s frozen and will keep. What about the pretty, sexy veggies?
I have realised that all the food I have been saving for winter (legumes, breakfast cereals, and some frozen meat)… well, it’s time to start planning menus.
In the frozen meat world, I probably have 2 rabbits. When the supermarket across the street closed, I saw a chinese couple buying cheap frozen meat… and, indeed, there was a lot left even after all the other meat had been snagged… because there is no label on this meat positively identifying the animal of origin. And there’s a stamp saying it’s from China. So I bought two. Because I’ll try anything. Then I had a friend, who is a chef, give his opinion on the meat, and his best guess was rabbit. I have found three rabbit recipes, but I only have two rabbits. Any idea which recipe I should choose? Do you have an amazing rabbit recipe?
In the legume world, I have lentils (red and brown), split peas, pinto beans, kidney beans, and a few others. I’ll need to get my mother’s amazing recipe for red beans and rice. No clue really what to do with the pinto beans other than random chili concoctions.
And breakfast cereals — I found cream of rice! I am very excited. It should be smooth and sweet and delicate.
So my mother and I both bought small lamb roasts, and I stole her leftovers. After I made my roast, I cut the leftover meat off both of them to use for curry… but I was fairly careless as I am only one person and there was still plenty meat.
So I had fairly meaty bone pieces, yay.
First into the pot —
*one yellow onion and one purple onion, slightly trimmed and quartered… but with skins intact
*about 10 or so cloves of garlic. I have them pre-peeled and just tipped the jar, but if I were going from a pod, I would not peel the cloves and just cut them in half to expose the goody.
*bunch o black peppercorns (maybe 10-15… maybe more) again, I just tipped the container
*two stalks of celery
Then I put in to bones. YAY!
Then —
*three parsnips cleaned and trimmed, but not peeled
*6-8 baby carrots
*handful of parsley
*handful of thyme (finished off what was left in my herb pot because it froze that night)
*one bay leaf
*some shreds of ginger peel
And enough water to fill the pot.
Boil.
The next day, the meat on the bones had softened enough that it just fell into the water… I boiled the bare bones for just a bit longer before pulling them out and replacing them with two turkey necks.
More boiling.
Maybe by the end of today, or maybe tomorrow, I will strain it — but — damn — it smells lovely.
As of now, I think the addition of turkey was a good idea…
because The Joy of Cooking suggests making beef stock with some chicken parts to make it richer. When I have made beef stock in the past (w/o adding chicken), it was indeed a bit thin. Right now I have lamb stock going from bones pulled out of finished roasts of meat… it should be thin… but it smells amazing already. Do I:
And then when it was originally posted there was a poll here –
Leave it alone. It’s supposed to be lamb. Why would you but chicken in lamb stock?
4 (40.0%)
Add the chicken… It can only make things tastier. Purity is for silly people.
6 (60.0%)