what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

I was surprised about how simple the recipe was and how little actual whole tomatoes. I always assumed gazpacho had bread in it too. I got some tomato puree in a glass bottle and some tomato paste like thing in a can (I had always gotten it in a tube so was not sure I had tomato paste). Since i was concerned about it being too thick I just put twice the amount of cucumber in and then a little water after blending and eyeing it. I like it super smooth and my spouse likes it rustic so we went halfway. Also we ate half today for lunch and for that batch we put in like an inch of ginger (for health benefits) just to test out the taste. You couldn't even taste the ginger but maybe it gave it an extra spiciness? And I couldn't find cayenne so used indian red chili powder.And didn't do the balsamic reduction dots but put thinly sliced avocado and cilantro on top. I forgot that I had bought chives for it as well. Gazpacho is one of the only soups I like and I give the recipe an A+.

Like it was so good and easy, I want to serve it to people who come to our place.

on a similar front, tonight i made the chicken bouillabaisse recipe in the zuni cafe cookbook. that book is almost alchemical as far as having extremely simple preparations that taste amazing. in this one, you sweat some sliced onion, add thyme, bay, and a dried chile and boil off a little white wine, then add garlic, saffron, and diced tomato along with some broth and some chicken legs. cook for an hour (i threw it in a low oven for about half the time b/c the liquid level wasn't high enough for me to feel confident in a stovetop braise).

the next bit of magic was the recommended plating--a chicken leg, some of the cooking liquid, and a piece of grilled bread smeared with aioli. i had never done a mayonnaise-like thing in a mortar and pestle before. it was fun!

i am making skyr
i am also working on a sourdough starter
i may use the whey from the skyr to start some vegetable pickles

it's the circle of life

I don't generally like soups or stews, but since the gazpacho I made was so good, I am going to make that spinach/tahini soup from the NYT this week.

And as usually I will have to sub things. We never have veg stock so I might just use some of the carmelized onions, that TJ's mushroom umami powder or a little miso after.

i'm not a soup fan either. i made a mexican chicken and cabbage soup this week that was quite good though.

last night i made some sous vide elk backstrap w/"spicy" kale and satueed porcini

it were good

first time cooking something sous vide for ~24hrs and man it really works

that sounds really good. but there's an image in my hatebank of Ted Nugent holding a ridiculous bow and saying something about "backstraps" in his episode of Mtv Cribs.

I feel like using the phrase "sous vide" in the presence of The Nuge would cause him to melt like a witch.

gbx that sounds awesome. what is your apparatus?

i left my cat a half cup of whey near her food to see if she'd like it. she walked by and gave it an aggressive sweep like she was cleaning her litter box. she does that when she's done eating food too but this was like, angry.

I think I am finally going to use this stupid spiralizer that I have taken with me to four different countries and never used. All those poor zucchinis that were never spiraled. Albatross.

Haha my sister randomly bought one of those a couple years ago and it has never been used. I was looking at it one day thinking about putting it to use but then I laid down and the feeling went away

I have two largish trips coming up this year so I am trying to forcefeed myself as many vegetables as possible before then (thus the spinach soup and gazpacho above).

Last weekend when I made my quinoa bowl for the week, I did the French Laundry recommendation of blanching veggies in a huge pot of salted water. I did two heads of broccoli that I used in the quinoa. It was so much better, bright green and still crisp and slightly seasoned already.

haha i huff vegetables before traveling too :) spinach in particular!

gbx that sounds awesome. what is your apparatus?

that looks wellperfectly done

looks outstanding

thx yall

sous vide really is magic. one of the best things i have ever eaten, let alone prepared myself, was sous vide rack of lamb from a friend's farm. absolutely incredible, and pretty foolproof. tend to shy away from farmed animals these days, but the success i had with that elk is making me think about pulling some tags next year. apparently antelope is delicious??

i got mr veg an anova nano for christmas
works amazingly well. steaks turn out so amazingky delicious! everything so far has been vv good.

sidebar: our original anova nano went off-balance & started making a deafening highpitched noise about a month after we got it. got a replacement from the manufacturer, hoping it doesnt crap out. if it does i guess we’ll invest in the higher-level model that can be more easily repaired. nano is completely enclosed & can’t be opened up for repairs without breaking the casing :/

I’m looking forward to moving into a new place and having a kitchen with enough space for a few more gizmos. Sousvide iis definitely on the list. I’m pretty sure your method would adapt to kangaroo.

is there any way around single use plastic when sous vide-ing? either way i would love to play around w/ eggs, scallops and fishies with that method. one of these days. . .

There's silicone pouches out there I think but I've not used them before

sous vide eggs are overrated, I'd guess, because you might want the whites to cook more than the yolk, i.e. a temperature gradient to the center can be a good thing for them. And if you are patient, you can do the momofuku slow-poached eggs with a thermometer and your usual pot+burner setup. https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/11/momofuku-slowpoached-eggs-recipe.html

experimenting with slow poaching temperature and time is a fun side project while reading a book

I can report that silicone pouches are good replacements for ziplocks in othe situation but don’t you want a vacuum pouch for sousvide?

If you can approximate a vacuum seal by slowly submersing the bag in water it ought to work. I have a sealer and still have used ziplocs most of the time because I'm just that lazy

you can just drop eggs in the water bath.

my vacuum sealer uses bags that are good for 12 uses although it is currently leaving a puncture in the bag so i’m not going to recommend it per se.

just pureed French Laundry recipe gazpacho and holy **ck is it yum. haven't even added olive oil yet and it's fine without. i did sub sherry vin. for white wine (what was on hand and seemed reasonable), and threw in a habanero. A+ soup.
was trying to figure out why there would be a difference in overnight maceration of the ingredients this recipe calls for, versus simply pureeing the soup and then letting the flavors marry overnight - sort of seems like six of one half a dozen of the other to me, but who cares when the results are so sublime?

We are making it again this weekend too! It's so simple! We put thinly sliced jalapenos and avocado on top when serving.

yeah, i was def thinking avocado would be nice. simplicity of prep to deliciousness ratio is off the charts

I am going to try it without the olive oil to see if it makes a difference.

I wonder if they don't puree it before leaving it overnight because they want it to taste fresher before serving? We ate the second pureed batch the next day and it seemed more potent and even a little fermented? It could've just been me.

yeah, other thing i just thought of along the same lines is that freshly pureed is gonna be slightly aerated and that my bring appealing "mouthfeel" (uggh, couldn't think of a synonym) and just a slight variation on trad gazpacho flavor . and as great as most soups are the second day, with something like this with raw onions in it they are gonna begin to oxidize and that may be less appealing to a palate. #strawgrasping

I also didn't do the the tomato paste this time just to see how much of a difference it made. I think it's needed for depth, I prefer it with.

tomato paste is always cheating and always a good idea

I like the tomato paste in tubes. A swedish guy at work will occasionally squeeze reindeer or fish meat out of a tube onto giant crackers for lunch, and I want to eat like that.

I love the tubes too.

i do not like the lack of tubed foods here.

i like tubes for tomato paste def. much more practical

i love the tubes of tomato paste. those silly little cans are the worst (never use it all, most goes to waste)

Those little cans suck. I didn't even measure, I just dump it all in because I hate waste.

i should probably just use the whole content but I'm scared i'll over tomato my meal (not sure how bad that would be when i think about it)

whenever I think like that it ends up being extremely bad

i am a real goody two shoes in the kitchen and respect any recipe I'm making. go a bit devil may care if I'm improvising mind you

Oh, I never follow recipes exactly. I was trying to explain to a baker friend about these compost cookies I made and it was like "well, I didn't have potato chips, but I had quinoa chips, and I didn't have brown sugar but put in agave, and I added in some hot chili powder, and I don't like pretzels or chocolate or butterscotch so left that out. But I like peanut butter so added in a dollop of that... " on and on.

If anything tastes bad or weird, I adjust it. But I also will eat almost anything.