What do your meals look like (show me pictures)....

SafariGalNYC

@acpgee - 😋 🍣!!!

SafariGalNYC

Purple cauliflower and scallops for dinner.

I just thought the cauliflower was pretty - added in some herbs de Provence.

Butter lettuce salad

mjbnj0001

Made a chicken-cauli curry tonight for dinner using a 350-year-old recipe with a couple of mods.

Not my 1st time with this dish or variations, but 1st time with my wife at home to try it. She's not one for heat (spice), so I dusted mine with a little cayenne. Pretty simple, pretty healthy. On brown rice.

Adventurista

Ooh, recipe @mjbnj0001 ?

I had been browsing veggie pics and was considering looking for one. I also prefer mild to mid heat...

Assumed this is curried cauliflower. Not sure on dip, but was thinking tatziki.

mjbnj0001

Adventurista wrote: »

Ooh, recipe @mjbnj0001 ?

I had been browsing veggie pics and was considering looking for one. I also prefer mild to mid heat...

Assumed this is curried cauliflower. Not sure on dip, but was thinking tatziki.

source recipe is at https://youtu.be/Zgi4Gbu1ZFE?si=PWzwZ8GFeQXXeDHY

very simple basis but you can go to town with it to be as elaborate as you want. for this particular batch i swapped out butter for coconut oil, and replaced dairy cream with coconut milk. i also added garlic powder and dried cilantro to the flavorings. i held the cauliflower out as a last addition so it retained some crunch, being in effect blanched. in other batches, i have used broccoli, frozen veg mixes of various types, frozen peas, etc., and occasionally just vegan as a changeup.

interestingly, the flavorings are quite simple as presented: powdered ginger and turmeric, salt, pepper and lemon. fresh finely grated ginger kicks up the flavor real well. i bought a hunk of fresh turmeric earlier this year to see how that worked out, but got distracted and wasnt able to complete that experiment before it went bad thru neglect. simplicity of ingredients is one of my overarching goals, so i like knowing what exactly is in here. i have "cheated" a few times with commercial madras curry spice mix or garam masala to get more of a restaurant feel. even with the coconut, this recipe's sauce is a little watery vs. restaurants. when it's just me, i add some heat, too.

Consistent with 350 year old instructions, measurements aren't precise, i just go as the spirit moves me. i do not think i have made it exactly the same way twice lol.

i ran across the townsends youtube channel during the pandemic when i was looking for creative ways to use the basic ingredients that we were able to get our hands on (we were visiting our daughter in canada when the borders were closing, getting back when we were still able, but after the grocery stores were ravaged by then by panic buying. the first few weeks were a little trying). anyway, going back to the 17th century gave me some hints and recipes, and i continue to look in on them when the mood hits, including just for educational entertainment. the presenter in this video isnt the original or main presenter of the channel, who i prefer, but does do a decent job. i have made a number of recipes presented, doing them in a modern-adapted fashion rather than the historical re-enactments that they do.

good luck!

mjbnj0001

Adventurista wrote: »

Ooh, recipe @mjbnj0001 ?

I had been browsing veggie pics and was considering looking for one. I also prefer mild to mid heat...

Assumed this is curried cauliflower. Not sure on dip, but was thinking tatziki.

i bought the cauliflower the other day and was going to savory roast it as a side to some ranch chicken using all that stuff i have posted recently. then i thought, roast it like you did, use some ranch as a dip. then thought once more, which is how we got curry tonight, lol.

we live in new jersey, so getting restaurant indian cuisine is not difficult. but as you may have figured out, i like to try th8ng myself, esp. if i can avoid the highly processed stuff as much as possible.

this prep is flavorable but not spicy hot, as is said in the video. i used to eat stuff so hot you had to sign a waiver before they served you (yes, that was a gimmick in some restaurants, lol). at 70yo i have mellowed a bit, as has my wife, so we are aligned more with you in the level of heat. if i am asked what's the best indian i have eaten, my answer is ... ireland. very flavable and complex, not just hot. london a close 2nd.

acpgee

Pinhead oat (=steelcut in the US) risotto with edamame, peas, and serrano ham which I forgot to stir in. Wings dressed with miso caramel that overbrowned.

acpgee

Air fryer chicken. Was planning to do the Chicago Tribune KFC coating but forgot I had run out of spice mix so used the spice mix I keep on hand for biltong mixed with flour. Smashed small potatoes, stir fried choi sam and roasted cherry tomatoes.

Adventurista

Ty @mjbnj0001 - gives me courage to curry up some cauliflower
- i also have let things expire gathering courage to try or for doing other, unplanned items. I am trying to do better with that; use or preserve instead of toss.


Chicken & chicken sausage, mixed vegetable soup with french bread for dipping for dinner tonight.



Made another large batch of mixed bones broth and veggie trimmings I had gathered in the freezer for soups this week. Rest is stored in ziplocks to use in soups, stews and sauces.

mjbnj0001

@Adventurista

thank you and good luck in your experiments!

i am impressed with effort you are making ... i havent gone the veggie scraps and bone broth route yet myself ( for at least one reason, i have very few bones around in my lowered-meat approach). there is always room for more expansive efforts when we get past the holidays into the new year. we are already beginning to map out these next weeks.

between the influence of my grown daughters to reduce waste, my own drive towards more/simpler whole foods, and being appalled at the statistics on wasted food, i more and more feel as if i am back in the 50s/60s meal planning around utilizing combined leftovers to make new meals. i might even start casserole-ing, 21st century style. mom would be proud, lol.

this stuff doesnt need to be exotic or complex. its been a busy weekend, getting out and about, yet we were able to have fresh veg crudites with the remnants of the ranch dressing/dip from last week, the 2nd loaf of the whey bread came out of the freezer for this coming week, i have some chicken thawing in the fridge for dinner tomorrow (which will likely to get an experimental long bath in the remaining liquid whey to see how it tenderizes), and, as i was alone for a late dinner tonight, i rustled up a scratch meal where i cooked pasta in the leftover chicken stock i produced the other day making the chicken/cauliflower curry (adding a flavor boost to the pasta by doing so) and combined it with sauteed aging diced veg (clearing the fridge for new stuff), some sauce and a can of chick peas (for a little protein boost). humble yet satisfying meal (satisfying two ways ... economy/ecology and foodwise). it may not be a "pasta e ceci" but i didnt mind, lol.

Siren2024

acpgee

I make homemaede broth too. Just toss all your bone and vegetable waste in ziplock bags in the freezer until the bag is full. I have seperate bags for poultry, fish & shellfish, vegetable peels & trimmings. I don't buy whole fish very often so the bag contining a couple of fish skeletons has been sitting around for almost a year.

mjbnj0001

@Adventurista @acpgee

when you collect your veg scraps, what are you collecting? peels/skins, cores, "ugly bits" (lol), etc ...

acpgee

@mjbnj0001
Mostly washed skins and ends. Also inedible but flavoursome stuff like celery string and hard mushroom and bean stems. Sad veg and herbs at the bottom of the produce drawer that might spoil or dry out. Bits of unused onion that got saved in tupperware that didn’t get used in time and are starting to sprout. Yellow and white onion skins can go into the stock pot. They lend no flavour but add colour. Stock without onion skins can look a little anemic.

SafariGalNYC

To all those that can make homemade bone broth -I salute you - my homemade bone broth and all attempts at leftover turkey soup have been revolting.

On a yummier note:
Green shakes and eggs and squash for brekkie.

acpgee

I don’t make beef lok lak often enough. I don’t miss skipping the optional rice if I include the optional fried egg. Leftover khymer lime and pepper sauce is great on eggs or grilled meat or fish. Well used recipe card is from a cooking course while on vacation in Cambodia.

mjbnj0001

I've come to the conclusion of my latest experiment(s), extracting the liquid whey from yogurt and using the resulting components in a couple of ways (wheys? lol). The previous steps are posted above from various days.

Tonight was seeing how well liquid whey acted as a chicken marinade. I've known a long time that marinading in yogurt does great things for chicken, but reasoned that the whey was the critical component, not the milk solids, so, with leftover liquid whey available from the prior parts of the experiment, I gave some chicken a 2hr whey bath. To simplify, I didn't add flavorings until afterwards, and I rinsed off the surface whey from the chicken so its being cooked, too, didn't impact the results. All my online sources didn't bother with all that, just flavoring and cooking without that separate strictness; maybe I'll do this again after the holidays. That's how tandoori yogurt and tzatziki marinades work.

Anyway, it did have a pleasing effect, making the cooked chicken a little tenderer and moister, just as regular yogurt marinading does. In other words, I didn't see much of an amplification of the effect, and at this point I am not sure the extraction process is worth it except to get the whey and Greekified yogurt components for other uses, of which there are many. I'm open to hearing from others on their experiences. Longer marinade? Leave it on for the cook? Cook it other than oven roast? Other ingredients in a marinade?

Anyway, I want to thank you all following along on this particular journey. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, "The end is here, ..., I did it my whey." Ooh, bad pun, but worth at least a little chuckle?

Pics:

1. At the conclusion of the plain whey marinade "bath." I'm about to get rid of the liquid. Forgot to mention above, I half expected a pronounced visiual change to the chicken, whitening or something, and plainly that didn't occur.
2. End of the bake. I did a fairly simple herbal rub. The roasted carrots have a lite sweet-hot glaze (mostly honey, soy sauce, butter and some cayenne). The other side for tonight was the rest of that throw-together pasta/chickpea/veg concoction from yesterday.

acpgee

Melon and serrano ham with a few yellow barhi dates as antipasto, followed by papardelle puttanesca and some stir fried choi sum.