What'cha Cookin' Tonight II

[civvver]

I have never made nor tried knodel. I know it's some kind of dumplin, polish in origin? I have made enchiladas.

 

[onejayhawk]

You can do very nice dumplings using cut up flour tortillas.

J

 

[Sofista]

I have never made nor tried knodel. I know it's some kind of dumplin, polish in origin? I have made enchiladas.

Mah, I don't know about precise origins. Wiki says it's basically found in and around the former Austria-Hungary. And that's why I know it well - I am from historical Tyrol, after all

What I'm referring to is more or less this, with local differences (the most important is, we cook them in broth, and grate cheese on the finished dish).

 

[yung.carl.jung]

What would you bring to a multi cultural potluck? My work is having one and we're supposed to bring a family recipe or ethnic dish. I thought about this, I really don't have any family recipes. I have my own goto recipes, but nothing ethnic, unless you consider shish kebabs or chicken stir fry ethnic. If someone asked me what your signature recipe was it'd probably just be chicken stew in the crock pot. There are four meals we have almost once a week because they are easy, fast and agreeable to everyone in my fam: Chicken stew in the crock pot, grilled or baked salmon, burgers and tacos. Stew I make ahead, salmon you just throw in the over for 20 mins, and the other two I can whip up the protein in like 10 minutes and we just fix a couple sides. But I wouldn't bring any of those to a potluck.

I guess I am going to make some homemade fresh egg fettuccine and a light sauce, either simple olive oil, white wine, lemon, garlic, herbs, or sausage and peppers with a little tomato paste. I don't really consider italian-american food very ethnic, but I my roots are central Europe, all we eat is like meat and potatoes and grandparents didn't cook all that much. I made ravioli and lasagna before but honestly the payoff wasn't worth the effort. It tasted maybe 10% better than store bought for like 300% more effort. I think the fresh pasta quality is lost in the other flavors when it's baked/stuffed. Fresh pasta is like 100% tastier than dried in my opinion for at most 50% more effort.

So what would you bring to a multi cultural pot luck?

As a side note, half my team is indian, and there are some chinese people working here too so I'm sure they can bring something very typical in their native cuisine that'll seem exotic to the rest of us.

but your current recipes are what the family eats, and possibly even what your children will cook when they leave the house. so they are family recipes, no? give it some time and they're family traditions, give it some cultural change and they're ethnic

to me "ethnic" as in "ethnic supermarket" just means specific to an ethnicity. so for example gumbo, a reuben sandwich, biscuits and gravy, chitlins, lobster bisque, a specific bbq and maybe even regional burger styles should be considered "ethnic". a lot of American food that isn't mickey dee's should but I don't think that's what was meant in the request just my piece of mind

Btw Knödel is a German dish (tho I am sure there is a eastern european variant of it). commonly made with potatoes, I prefer a different kind: Semmelknödel



made from Old bread!

 

[Sofista]

Carl, the recipe I linked is indeed Semmelknödel with bacon (Speckknödel).

 

[civvver]

Baked salmon with salt and pepper and brushed it near the end a few times with mix of honey, melted butter and cayenne. Turned out really nice, not too sweet. My wife didn't prefer it though over regular salmon.

I'm trying to eat a lot more fish and healthier in general and saw sardines next to the canned tuna and figured I'd give em a try. I love anchovies so it didn't seem like much of a stretch. So I had them right out of the can with my salad. Definitely more fishy flavor than tuna, which is good in my opinion. Tuna I always thought was kind of bland. I guess the next thing to try is on some table crackers with some hot sauce or mustard. You guys got any recipes for canned sardines?

 

[Azem.Ocram]

I don’t often see recipes for Sardines and I’m not a fan of canned tuna but I hear Pasta alla Sarda is pretty good.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I mastered Mushroom Risotto enough to impress guests without a recipe. I think it would have been a little better with Italian parsely and maybe a little basil but my fresh herbs have gone bad (and I was down to just the stems anyway). I used a combination of 3 of the biggest portabellos and the stems of 6, 2 handfulls of shiitake, and some dried porcini.

The process for cooking risotto is easy
1. Sweat/melt diced onions or shallots (I used a large sweet onion) in a large pan with olive oil
2. Add diced fresh mushrooms if you have any, let them sweat and brown a bit, then add garlic and spices (like chili flakes, black pepper, paprika, cumin)
3. Add the rice (I used a pound bag of arborio because the fancy types are expensive and hard to find), toasting for 1-3 minutes (possibly 1-2 minutes longer if you have a lot of mushrooms)
4. Add wine, preferably a cheap table wine, mix together until mostly evaporated
5. Add broth (I used a full box of unsalted beef broth and most of a box of low sodium chicken stock) to be at or slightly above the rice level (trying to maintain the liquid level the whole time), stirring constantly (add herbs at this point)
6. 10-30 (usually around 15-20) minutes later, depending on size, burner heat, and preferred doneness, take off heat, add butter and home-grated hardcheese (preferably both frozen, grated, mixed together, then frozen, then mixed in slowly but no one has time for that)
7. Serve, possibly with fresh herbs (like parsely and basil), and cheese

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Carl, the recipe I linked is indeed Semmelknödel with bacon (Speckknödel).

those are actually my favorite one of the best German side dishes imho. delicious with a sunday roast.

 

[Sofista]

Azem, it seems to me that you nailed the risotto procedure!

There's just one thing that had me wondering...

4. Add wine, preferably a cheap table wine,

I never heard use "preferably cheap" applied to cooking. Come to think of it, I never heard it used period (maybe I just live under a rock).

 

[Azem.Ocram]

Cooking wine has additives that make it worse for most recipes and expensive drinking wine has tannins, which concentrate when the alcohol boils off, leaving dishes too sour and bitter. Therefore, cheap table wine (I tend to use box wine, as all the restaurants I’ve worked in use Franzia) gives the best result.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

@Sofista

do you have some nice recipes for burrata? it's one of my favorite cheeses and I can get fresh one in very high quality just a few minutes from my flat away. ive put it on pizza, focaccio, tomatoes, but really don't have many ideas on how to eat it.

 

[onejayhawk]

If you want to keep wine for cooking, vermouth is shelf stable after opening. If available, four-packs of 8 oz bottles are handy.

J

 

[Sofista]

expensive drinking wine has tannins

Tannins? Are you using red wine?
I spent half an hour over this, sifting through my cookbooks, and they all seem to have a consent and unless specified by the recipe (when the wine becomes protagonist in your risotto) they go for ""dry white wine".

@Sofista

do you have some nice recipes for burrata? it's one of my favorite cheeses and I can get fresh one in very high quality just a few minutes from my flat away. ive put it on pizza, focaccio, tomatoes, but really don't have many ideas on how to eat it.

Burrata being around since just 63 years, I don't believe it has many specific recipes yet. But I guess you could try to use it in lieu of mozzarella in many cases. A couple ideas:

- eggplant parmigiana. In fact a book I have mentions a Winter variant. Here's the text: "A Winter version can be made with potatoes and Savoy cabbage [Wirsing], with potatoes puréed instead of tomato and braised Savoy cabbage subs the taste of eggplant. The secret? Add between the two some cheese and white meat ragù. Put it on a tray, gratin and serve".

- A favorite of mine: gnocchi alla sorrentina ("Sorrento style"). Prepare a classic tomato sauce separatedly, cook and drain the gnocchi. In a pot (traditionally earthware) layer sauce, gnocchi, sauce, and at the top add the diced burrata (originally mozzarella). Grill in the oven for 5' at 200°C (or use a skillet if you'd rather not use the oven).

 

[yung.carl.jung]

tannins are what cause the bitter taste in foods, like wine or overbrewed tea, so in a sauce that needs sweetness you would use a cheap red wine, but in a sauce that needs body you would use a dry white win. often times it seems counterintuitive, for example for my ragout bolognese I always use white wine, even though the sauce has a brown/red look to it. it tastes much better.

thank you for the recipe ideas, I think I will go for the sorrentina, sounds lovely. I had no idea burrata was a recent invention!

 

[Sofista]

If it works, amen to that!

 

[civvver]

tannins are what cause the bitter taste in foods, like wine or overbrewed tea, so in a sauce that needs sweetness you would use a cheap red wine, but in a sauce that needs body you would use a dry white win. often times it seems counterintuitive, for example for my ragout bolognese I always use white wine, even though the sauce has a brown/red look to it. it tastes much better.

thank you for the recipe ideas, I think I will go for the sorrentina, sounds lovely. I had no idea burrata was a recent invention!

Huh, interesting, I did not know that was why. I know some bolognese recipes use dry reds, others use dry whites. I didn't know why. I usually use chardonnay since that's what we are likely to have on hand. Well, really we always have Riesling cus my wife drinks that, but that's horrible for cooking. I mean the late harvest sweet stuff.

 

[onejayhawk]

Judith did an ad hoc set of casseroles for a church function.

10 lb chicken legs
26 oz can cream of celery soup
1 1/2 pounds shredded cheese
2 bags frozen onion, bell pepper, parsley mix
4 lb spaghetti
rosemary, sage, and oregano finely chopped
bread crumbs

Boil the chicken legs until cooked, reserving broth
Part and shred the meat
Boil the pasta to half cooked
Mix everything but breadcrumbs and portion into baking pans
Cover with breadcrumbs and bake at 350° for an hour​

She fed 40 with seconds and leftovers. The food tab was barely $25.

There was chicken stock for the freezer. No salt was added except to the pasta water. S&P at the table was sufficient. I would have added some hot pepper sauce and fish sauce as flavor boosters but it worked without them.

J

 

[Timsup2nothin]

My gf came up on this recipe for Jalapeno Popper Quiche. It's currently in the oven so I can't say yet whether it will be great or not, but I have a question for people who are more familiar with quiche than I am; which is gonna be just about anyone since this was the first one I ever made and I haven't eaten it much either. The last line in the recipe says "Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled." Is that normal? My immediate reaction was "Cold eggs? Yuck!" but I'm willing to consider that being part of a quiche somehow makes a difference...maybe...I dunno man, I'm kinda stuck on cold eggs, yuck.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

Real Custard is mostly egg and Flan and Creme Brule are usually served chilled. Most cafes offer to reheat quiche though I’ve never heard of any that will serve quiche hot without asking.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I stuffed some dates with blue cheese, wrapped them in bacon and baked them. It's pretty good but I should have overstuffed them with blue cheese or gone with something more pungent like gorgonzola.