Carrots and parsnips first softening in kettle with 1 whole stick of salted butter.
Spices are...
Nutmeg.
Mace.
Freshly ground black pepper.
Knorr shrimp bullion powder.
Other ingredients will be added later as needed.
Onion.
Celery.
Sweet colorful peppers.
Asparagus.
Apple.
Shrimp.

This is delicious and the shrimp isn't with it yet.
It will be cooked on the side and added.
The asparagus was cross cut until tender and put in.
The tops added later.
Total spices were added.
Freshly ground allspice and clove.
5 spice powder.
Turmeric.
A broth made with Knorr chicken bullion powder.
About a quarter cup of sweet vermouth to get rid of it.
It needs nothing else.
One more run down on the veggies.
Carrots.
Parsnips.
Onion.
Celery.
Asparagus.
Sweet peppers.
Honey crisp apple.
Also tossed in a dollop of EVOO in the beginning.

Last but not least the shrimp was cooked in highly salted water for 90 seconds and instantly cooled off with cold water.
There's six jumbo Texas gulf wild shrimp cut up into three pieces each to make eighteen pieces of shrimp after cooking and cooling.
This is an amazingly flavorful dish fit for the King and Queen of the land.
Best served with a glass of iced Port wine or any other sweet wine.
Since the national sweetness of the dish wouldn't pair well with a dry wine. ,

2.89 pound top of the shoulder roast with the t bone one it

Cubed up and heavy browning with salt pepper and cumin.
A little MSG added afterwards and more flour.
It's in the 12 inch Lodge cast iron skillet and will go in oven at around 300F or so to braise.
Just beef nothing else.

I nailed the flour liquid ratio for a delicious gravy.
Now all I have to do is make some rice.

Pre beef gravy and rice.
Veggies as the first course.
Cooked in a hot cast iron skillet with EVOO.
Carrots and asparagus.
Salt black pepper and garlic powder are the spices.

That was one of the best roasts I've ever had.
Not over cooked and melt in your mouth tender and juicy.

Still working on that beef in gravy with rice.
It's actually one of the most common dishes served in Louisiana and they have contests for this dish as well.
Just so as you know.

Gotta shrimpy experiment going on.
Instead of boiling water I put the shrimpys in cold salted water with a thermometer in the water..
Stove on medium low.
Thermometer set at 145F.
When it goes off the shrimpys will be done.
No possible chance of over cooking.
We shall see.

Next the same water will be used to cook the pasta for fettuccine Alfredo American style.

I made a chole masala today, with green chickpeas, I soaked overnight. I then just pressure cooked those for an hour in the Instant Pot, and let it release, and it was barely cooked! I drained the chana, and started the generous cup of onions in the IP in Sauté mode in a little olive oil, and in about 5 minutes added 4 large minced cloves of garlic, and about 3 tb of that chana masala powder I made up, stirred about 30 seconds, then added a pint of tomato purée, and simmered, while adding 3/4 tsp turmeric, and a tsp of garam masala, and added the chana, plus about half the liquid, and a generous 4 cups of chopped kale and bok choy, brought to a simmer, then cooked about 30 min. Not quite thick enough, so I also added about a half cup of steel cut oats, and about ¼ cup of red lentils, set it to pressure cook 3 minutes, then let it release naturally. Turned out great!

Meanwhile, I cooked some flatbread to eat with it - some jowar roti, which I pressed out in a tortilla press, since the sorghum flour has no gluten, like masa.
A jowar roti, pressed out in a tortilla press - works well because there is no gluten. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A jowar roti, to serve with the chole masala, cooked in a CI pan I use for a lot of small flatbreads. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The finished chole masala, made with some green chickpeas, a bunch of greens, a small amount of red lentils, and some steel cut oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The slow cook method of cooking the shrimp was a great success.
Just like I cook potatoes in water almost.

The water never comes to a boil but just slowly creeps up to 145F.
The shrimp do not come to the top but become suspended in the water.
This means the shrimp is equal to the weight of the water surrounding it.
It essentially becomes weightless like a whale or a submarine.
As the temperature of the water increases more water is forced out of the shrimp and that's when the shrimp floats.
The longer this goes on the more rubbery and dry the shrimp becomes.
If allowed to continue the shrimp will start to break down.
The shrimp should form a C shape but not an O shape.
Some people recommend 120F but I want my bacteria a little more dead than that.
The plus side to this method is you don't have to cool the shrimp with cold water because it never was in water hotter than the temperature you wanted it to be.

Next the spices aren't washed off running cold water over them or putting in an ice water bath.

This is a real plus for me because it's always aggravating for the flavor to get washed off.

yesterday, it was a cold one, so the remedy was soup.
turkey giblet is what i made with the free giblets from quincys restaurant in dollar bay.
didn't have any celery, so i put in a turnip not knowing how it would turn out. the soup
was good.

today, baked chicken, one of our meat birds alnog with green veggies of some type.


keith

Been on an escarole and endive kick around here. Finished off at lunch an escarole soup with chicken and rice we made earlier in the week. Tonight, it’s curly endive with bacon, croutons and poached eggs and a warm dressing. I’m about out escarole, but still have several more of the endive.

These greens ought to be more popular.

Beef stew, with err.. chicken giblets, gravy is made from chicken giblet broth.

It's chili because it's chilly outside.

Stickin to the man.
Liver onions and sweet peppers in gravy.
Spices.
Salt.
Black pepper.
Garlic powder.
Mace.
Knorr beef bullion powder.
Cook onion and peppers first and remove.
Put flour coated liver in and fry in shallow oil and remove.
Add a little more oil and make a light brown roux.
Make gravy add garlic powder salt black pepper and mace.
Add liver onions and peppers.
Adjust spices as needed.
Serving suggestion put on top of toasted bread.

I made something today to have with the leftovers from that chole masala. While not really a pickle, I guess they called it this, due to the sugar and salt preserving it. Based on a recipe from Cradle Of Flavor, by James Oseland, with some tweaks. It is a favorite side dish of mine to serve with SE Asian dishes and Indian dishes, and to just eat on its own.

This is for about 2½ lbs of large pineapple cubes.

​2 thin 1" stick of cinnamon
​8 whole cloves
​4 whole cardamom pods
2 small whole star anise
3 medium shallots, sliced
4 medium (or 2 large) cloves garlic, sliced
2" ginger, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
3 tb palm sugar
3/4 tsp salt
4 tb water
Peppers - original was 3 fresnos, but here I used 4 Thai peppers, plus a large red habanero, slit. Next time I'll use a hot habanero, and two Aji Dulce, as that sweet habanero flavor is great with the pineapple, but all habanero would be too hot! Just slitting the peppers made this quite hot.
Ingredients for Malaysian pickles - spices, garlic, shallots, ginger, peppers, and palm sugar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Spices followed by the garlic, shallots, and ginger, cooked a few minutes, and adding the sugar, salt, and water. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The pineapple and slit peppers added, before covering, and cooking several minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Half cooked pineapple, stirred once, after 3 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pickle, after uncovering, and boiling down the water to a syrup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
After this, I let them cool down, then serve at room temp. Keeps well in the fridge.





​

The beef liver came out fantastic except I didn't put the peppers in soon enough compared to the onions.

Other than that fine and I'm having the rest for breakfast but I thinned the gravy out with water and added a half cup of basmati rice and some beef bullion powder.
The liver was removed so it wouldn't over cook.
Once rice is cooked the liver will go back in.

And that's the reason for this post.
Growing up I ate liver but it was always over cooked.
Over cooking liver makes it tough and dry and somewhat unpleasant tasting.
I think my mom and many others of the time thought they could cook the liver until it wasn't liver anymore.

I have a partial bottle of cheap balsamic vinegar I'm reducing down to make something better or toss away.
Added some sangria and sugar and a sprinkle of MSG to the concoction.
Next a handful of hickory wood pellets
Yes you heard me right hickory wood smoking pellets.
That's because I had them handy.
Let the tasting begin.
Still a little too sour.
Add more sugar oh yeah that's going to reduce down about right but nothing to write home about.
Toss in the wood pellets and see what happens.
Oh my God almost immediately I can smell this sweet woody caramel smell coming from the hot mixture.
I let it stay like this for a bit and filtered the wood out.
Back in the pan for final reduction on warm.
After reducing down to about 1/2 I poured back into the bottle to cool off.
Did a cool spoon test.
This stuff is amazing and the wood pellets did it.
Who would've thought.
I've seen people try to make cheap balsamic vinegar into expensive vinegar but never used wood.
They said that was what was missing, the wood flavor from being in barrels so I just added wood.

After sitting overnight this is the product.
The taste is amazing.
It's like syrup and as black as the devil's heart.