Home Cooking 2023

Ramen noodles with sautéed oyster mushroom, sesame oil, scallions and basil. Served with sweet & sour cod filet (sugar cooked with rice vinegar and soy sauce)

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I love making split pea soup. My preferred recipe (although I don’t always follow it to the letter) includes balsamic vinegar, which makes the soup even less photogenic but I don’t care.

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I’m an absolute turd of a baker, but I was quite happy with how this banana bread came out. It’s a Claire Saffitz recipe but I swapped peanut butter in for the almond butter crust because the former is roughly 1000x better.

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No shot of the crumb??? :slight_smile:

Question for all: does anyone have a good technique/recipe for grilled octopus (esp one that could be done on a stovetop grill since we don’t have an outdoor one)? Partner will often longingly look at the octopus at the seafood counter and wonder how we can make it at home.

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If it’s the already cooked kind all you have to do is sear the legs over high heat in a heavy pan until it’s nice and crusty on the outside and just warmed through

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Thanks!

And if not already cooked, I found this for the boil and then simmering directions:

Dip tentacles into the boiling water 3 times, holding them in the boiling water 2 to 3 seconds each time, until the tentacles curl up. Submerge entire octopus in the boiling water. Bring water back to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until octopus is fork-tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes.

Does the above sound like a decent way to cook them?

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Sounds about right. Unless it’s small it’ll probably be an hour ish

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Peach Bread Pudding + Salted Caramel Sauce

Couldn’t find my peach bread pudding recipe so I used Joshua Weissman’s plain bread pudding recipe as a base (3 types of bread - country, croissant, brioche) and added acidic august lady peaches. To the custard I subbed part of the bourbon w/peach schnapps & added an extra egg yolk. :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: That’s butter pecan ice cream on top. I’m pretty sure this is better than my lost recipe. Hubs said “I want this for my birthday.” :peach: :two_hearts:

I didn’t make Irish soda bread lol.

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Potato and Chorizo Taco from Alex Stupak’s book - red chorizo made from ground pork, black pepper, coriander seeds, cinnamon, oregano, bay leaf, clove, guajillo chiles, roasted garlic, cider vinegar and sugar.
And salsa de arbol made with cumin, allspice, cloves, oregano, arbol chiles, roasted garlic, sesame seeds, sugar, pepitas and cider vinegar
Served with a cucumber salad with a yoghurt-dill sauce


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How do you feel about the chorizo? I’ve tried a few recipes and never been thrilled with the results so if you liked this one maybe I’ll check it out

The question is what are you looking for in a chorizo - I had so many variations in restaurants, taco shops etc., so it wasn’t the best variation I ever had but it was very good for this type of taco.

Fair question - I don’t really love chorizo so it’s probably me. Maybe I just wish it was a different type of sausage and won’t admit it to myself

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Polenta with Brussels sprouts, bacon, peas and mint - polenta cooked in vegetable broth and milk with garlic and bay leaf. Bacon cooked until crisp, Brussels sprouts roasted in bacon fat and than briefly cooked with peas and bacon in vegetable broth. Finished with nutmeg and fresh mint.

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What recipes have you tried and have? Red or green? Mexican, Central American or Spanish? Are you doing bulk or link prep? Are you letting it age for at least 3 days before using? And if you’re making links, are you hanging them to drain and dry, unrefrigerated?

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All good questions. It’s been a few attempts over the years I think all as bulk sausage and at least three days before using. I can’t speak to what style of chorizo the recipes were but I think I’ve tried the Food Lab version, America’s Test Kitchen and maybe a Michael Ruhlman version…?

Any recipe suggestions would be welcome!

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@DiningDiva has a good point that Spanish chorizo is very different than Mexican or Central American chorizo. Here is a link to my favorite sausage making website (I love their jerky and biltong recipes too) for different types of chorizo, Search Results for “chorizo” – 2 Guys & A Cooler

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I did boot camp with Diana Kennedy back around 2009. We made both red and green chorizo from scratch. For the chorizo rojo we used her recipe in The Art of Mexican Cooking for Chorizo de Huetamo. The Chorizo Verde recipe is also in the same cookbook. I was not able to find either recipe online to give you the links, but The Art of Mexican Cooking is pretty easy to find. The chorizo rojo recipe is good the chorizo verde recipe is super good. Both recipes are easy, the hardest part is wrapping your head around hanging them at room temperture for 3-days to drain and season. It goes against every food safety and sanitation regulation in existance, but I haven’t killed anyone yet :wink: :grin:

Additionally, you could try this recipe which is for Toluca style chorizo. Toluca is famous for their chorizo. And, in the interest of full disclosure I should add that I know both the authors of this recipe and the cookbook from which it comes. I know and trust both their palates and cooking sensibilities.

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This is awesome, thank you!

Oh, man yeah. Leela Punyaratabandhu (of the She Simmers blog) covered sour sausage and jar fermented ribs in her book “Flavors of the Southeast Asian Grill” and wow… I trust her expertise but it makes my skin crawl a bit just reading it.

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As Sam F used to say, ‘we live in a magic house.’

A simple play on cioppino - made with cod, fennel, Italian sausage, onion, marinara sauce, red wine, clam juice and fennel seeds

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