Cooking thread

Quote: Mosca

One small scoop.

Thanks.

I wasn't being sarcastic about the amount of ice cream. I'm trying to recover a recipe for Jello that uses 1 liter of vanilla or chocolate ice cream, actually.

That's okay, you got me thinking again about something that interests me: the concept of sweet desserts and the relationship between flavor, intensity of flavor, and portion size.

Although I have no problem with a piece of pie the size of my hand, what I really cherish is something that is intensely flavored and small. Something that you touch to your tongue and the flavors just explode, then change as they move through your mouth, then fade, leaving you wanting another touch to the tongue. That's what this was. Tart, sweet, intense, and gone. That was what I liked so much about it!

I've a lot of spagheti from last week left, and two 1+ liter containers of frozen something (I'm a bit undertain about one), so maybe I won't cook for next week.

This does give me a chance to try out deserts. I haven't done that beyond the coffee gelatin. One reason is that we never had desert in the house growing up, so I'm not used to eating any. Oh, there was cake or pie sometimes, but that was more a snack between meals (and even that was rare). The other reason is that I don't have much of a taste for sweets.

Is there any way to cook apples in a microwave? Soggy is okay.

Is there any way to clean a microwave? I've already tried nukeing water and dish soap, it didnt work. Nor did water and vinegar.

As to various upthread or different thread posts:

I've not eaten Llama but was sure puzzled for the longest time in a vegetarian restaurant in Charleston, SC when the waitress started talking to me about llamas .... finally I realized she was saying "Limas" as in Lima Beans.

Does anyone know what is in the pasta water that we normally drain so as to avoid eating glue like pasta?

I've got one of them tiny little ceramic jars with a lid that I use for microwaving an egg from time to time. How do you do it without having to spend three hour scrubbing the tiny little ceramic jar free of egg residue?

What is a good breakfast substitute if I have to eliminate the pork sausage/bacon part of those EggMcSomething Patties?

To clean a microwave, fill a cereal bowl with white vinegar and nuke it for about 7-8 minutes; you want it to boil and steam for a few of those minutes. Then dip a paper towel in the hot vinegar and wipe down the insides. If the oven is particularly bad, you might need to repeat step one. Or, you might need to use nylon netting instead of a paper towel.

You should be able to simply cut up an apple and microwave it. I don't think there is any special technique.

Starch is in the water.

Quote: Mosca

To clean a microwave, fill a cereal bowl with white vinegar and nuke it for about 7-8 minutes;

huh?

Just make sure you cover all splattery foods you nuke, either with a paper towel or a plastic dome. Then every few days wipe the inside of a the oven with a wet cloth and dish soap.

Quote: Mosca

My daughter made this for dessert yesterday, it was incredible.

I made it yesterday. It is incredible.

I'll post it on the blog as soon as possible (or maybe next year..)

Quote: Mosca

My daughter made this for dessert yesterday, it was incredible.

I will reiterate: it is incredible.

And now it's also in my blog:

http://kathyscookingcorner.blogspot.mx/2012/12/new-years-pears.html#

Quote: Nareed

Just make sure you cover all splattery foods you nuke, either with a paper towel or a plastic dome.

How do you ever keep a roll of paper towels nearby. That is one advantage of Chef Michelangina or something: you only open one corner of the box you don't remove the lid.

How do you make Christmas Smack and White Trash?

After you festoon the party area with a laundry line with ladies "unmentionables" drying on it, should they be spotless?

Bean soup

A big ol' ham bone
more ham
any kind of dried beans, or you can mix up some beans. You can use split peas, or lentils, or limas, or anything really.
some onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley, potatoes
chicken or beef broth
cracked black pepper
bay leaves
rice

It's soup. Proportions aren't critical; if you want more or less of something, or if you want to add something different, it'll probably work. For example, I love parsnips, so I add parsnips. Turnips would probably work. So would cabbage. Corn. Peas, too, and green or wax beans.

Rinse and prepare the beans, either by soaking overnight, or by boiling and resting. Change the water. Chop the vegetables and the ham, and toss everything into a pot except the potatoes and the rice. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a couple hours. Cut the potatoes up, boil them separately for about 10 minutes and toss them in the soup.

Remove the bone, after it cools pick any ham off of it and toss back into the soup. Remove the bay leaves. Take a couple ladles full of beans and veggies and puree them in a food processor or blender and add back to the soup.

Cook some rice, and toss it into the pot. (If you think it's silly to add rice to bean soup, by al means don't do it. That is the beauty of soup.)


Here are the exact proportions I used this time. This obviously made a huge pot of soup:

1 huge ham bone
about 3 lbs of ham
2 lbs of Goya 16 bean mix
5 large carrots
3 parsnips
3 medium onions
3 large stalks of celery
5 medium potatoes (not baking potatoes)
3 bay leaves
a big handful of chopped parsley
3 quarts of chicken stock and 1 quart of vegetable stock
1 cup (before cooking) of rice

Wheee! Soup time!

I hope this gives the gestalt of soup, that it is going to be whatever you make it to be. If you change the ham to chicken, and leave out the beans, you'll have chicken soup. If you use ground beef instead of the ham, beef stock instead of chicken, leave out the beans and add a can of tomatoes, you have vegetable beef soup. Add some noodles to it! (You might want to salt the beef or chicken soup, for the ham soup it will be plenty salty without adding any. Always taste first!)