Applying some skills in the kitchen
Turns out don’t store your wine above the stove. That’s what I did because I don’t really drink wine and above the stove put it way out of my way. But if one day, you make some spaghetti, and you want to drink some wine with it, you’ll find out that it went bad because you didn’t store it in a way to ensure that it will be good to drink someday. I made some terrible tasting vinegar. The spaghetti was okay.
I like to make soups and wanted to know which flavors combine well with beans. I think this will come in handy some time later. Perhaps even this weekend as I was thinking some kind of black bean, lentil soup.
https://www.thekitchn.com/flavor-combinations-beans-herb-75364
I’ve not done ribs very well. I try and try, but they never turn out right. Usually, my impatience forces me to find ways of cooking ribs quick but still getting them juicy, and that doesn’t always make for best ribs. In fact, I’ve failed most of the time.
Today, since I have lots of time on my hands with social distancing, stay-at-home, I’m gonna make ribs for dinner. I started last night with prepping the rib. Just dry it out and just season with salt and pepper. I leave it in the fridge overnight. This morning after drying out more, I put my rub on, then let it sit again for a couple more hours. Afterwards, it goes into the oven at 300 F for an hour and a half. I’m going to then paint a nice lacquer of BBQ sauce for the next hour and a half. That’s coming up. I hope in 3 hours at 300 it comes out nice…
I’m running out of things to do, even of things to think about. I thought about this one very early when we started getting locked up. I’ve been returning to it most recently: making a sourdough starter. This link gives simple instructions, plus it also helps in getting some data to scientists.
So get on it and bake some sourdough bread.
I’m trying to eat more vegetables. You should try eating more vegetables. We all need to eat more vegetables. Give Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons cookbook a read for some inspiring vege-tales.
I picked it up last week because I am looking to expand my horizons in vegetable eating. There were many cookbooks focusing on vegetables at my local book seller. This one though had the better pictures. Plus also his approach — dividing the year into six seasons to highlight the vegetables that ripen at that time — was inspiring. I doubt that I would follow his break down, but I’m sure to follow his recipes.
Cooked another soup this afternoon. It’s a continuation from the last few weeks: soup on a Sunday to take to work for the first few days of the week. Today’s soup is lentil and sausage soup.
I made use of the beef stock I made last month. And the andouille sausage I had socked away in the freezer from some chili I had made a while ago. Also, I always have some lentil beans in the cupboard because I sort of like lentils.
In a 3 1/2 quart pot, I brown the sausages in a bit of olive oil. I sprinkle them with a bit of cayenne for some extra spiciness. Took them out then threw in onions and carrots to cook in the nice fond. Seasoned with salt and pepper then when they were cooked (about 5 minutes) I added some garlic. I’ve learned to put the garlic in after doing the first set of vegetables.
In goes the lentils and the sausage. Maybe next time the sausage goes in after 30 minutes. Bring to a boil and then knock it down to a simmer. After 30 minutes of simmering I threw in some zucchini. Simmered again for another 20 minutes. Done.
It wasn’t bad. I think it may get better as it soaks overnight.
I usually make chicken stock. This weekend I’m trying beef stock for the first time.
Chicken stock seems to be more versatile. I’ve used it in all my soups even if it is in a beef-like French onion soup. It’s just easier to make a chicken stock, because it isn’t as intimidating. Buy chicken. Boil with some vegetables. What more?
Beef? It’s like figuring out what cut of meat to get. Rump? Roast? Sirloin? I don’t know. Yet, I now find out that get bones. BONES!
That’s simple. Get a cut with bones. Short ribs. Marrow bones. Ox tail. Ribs? Sure.
So the stock I’m making… stock? Or is it broth? What’s the diff?
I think broth is just the meat. Stock is broth made with other ingredients such as vegetables. I may be wrong, but I think that’s how I would describe them.
First, I roasted the beef bones I had. It was marrow and short ribs. I heated the oven to 450. Placed the meat on sheet pan, oiled up, salt and pepper then let it roast for 20 minutes.
When done, I put them in a pot and filled it up with 8 cups of water or until the meat is under water. Now, I should’ve washed the bones off with water because the blood would make the broth cloudy. Which is what was happening here. The scum was there, but the broth was getting cloudy. Will this make it terrible?
I planned to let this broth go for 12 hours. After I would add some leeks to make this a stock. It smelled great as a broth, but once the leeks went in, it lost its smell. And there was still scum to skim.
I was done this morning. I’m using it for a soup. It was good, not as beefy as I expected. I’m only going to get better at this. Hopefully.
It seems that I made a decent dinner tonight, a pasta dish, shells in tomato sauce with whatevers-in-my-fridge. The whatevers is a half a breast of roasted chicken and some spinach. I think I did it well tonight!
First, I did what they called a mise-en-scene. I cut a quarter onion, diced a few cloves of garlic, washed and drained a handful of spinach, and scored a small pint of cherry tomatoes. I got the pot of water boiling and then started in a non-stick skillet the onions and garlic.
I put in more than usual olive oil for the onions and garlic. Once they were cooking, I threw in the cherry tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato paste. The chicken went in to het it up. I covered it all up and cooked them at a medium heat setting, stirring occasionally.
Seasoning? The standard: salt and fresh cracked black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and oregano. Salt it to taste. I thought I salted mine too much, but it turned out perfect. I guess its some of that cheese I grated into it later on.
When the shells were done, I drained them reserving some water to help along the sauce. I put the shells into the pan with the water and grated the cheese into the dish. Stirred and served.
Yumm-o!
I think I finally cracked that pasta dish. Most likely its the amount of oil I used. I also tried not to over cook or burn the onion or garlic which I was surprised that I didn’t.
If I get to repeat this recipe, then I’ll be happy.
I bought a rack of ribs the other day during my weekly grocery shopping. I’ve never cooked ribs. I’ve eaten them, but never cooked. You see ribs seem to be best cooked in a smoker or on the grille. Yet, I’ve eaten them from the oven. My mom does it. My uncle does it. I guess I’ll have to do it.
I halved the rack last night. If I’m going to mess this up, I’ll at least have the other have to try. One half went into the freezer. The other I seasoned with salt, freshly ground black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. I placed this half into the fridge waiting for today to cook.
I then busily went about looking at youtube videos and DuckDuckGo search results for how to cook ribs in the oven. Most of the recipes were for barbecue style with a wet sauce. I wanted it dry. Most of the recipes had the rack cooking for 3 to 4 hours. I decided to try half that because it was half a rack. Most recipes cooked the ribs wrapped in aluminum foil. I left it open to the oven.
So how’d I do it? Here’s how…
Oven preheated to 350F. Pulled the half rack out of the fridge about 30 minutes before it went in. When it did, I let it cook for about an hour. Checked on it, put in under some aluminum foil, then left it in for another 25 minutes. Then I went about broiling it. Five minutes on one side at high — this is the side with the meat. Three minutes on low on the side with the bones. I took it out and covered it again with the aluminum foil for another 5 minutes. I think it was done. Cut it up and plated it.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as juicy and succulent. It was a bit dry, and the thicker parts were somewhat tough. The cartilage was tough to eat. I ate this half rack wishing it was better. I guess I know where to start making it better. First, read this blog post to see where I went wrong. Next, the half rack sitting in the freezer…
For making stock this past weekend, I bought a package of leeks to use instead of onions. Unfortunately, the package comes in 2 huge stalks. I used only one placing the other in the fridge for later. I needed to use it or it would go to waste.
I’ve never cooked with leeks before, so I scoured the internet for ideas. I made it as far as how to clean and prep them for cooking. I think I will wing it. So I did.
Mushroom, barley, leek salad? A side to my baked salmon. It didn’t turn out half bad, but I still have leek left over.
Using my favorite cooking method: one sheet cooking, I place a salmon filet on a bed of this mushroom, barley, leek salad and bake it in the oven for 18 minutes. I am still getting fish cooking wrong. The time is too long. It took the salmon filet to flaking which is past the “just about flaking” standard for fish. I’ll have to adjust the time down. I think I’ll try 15 minutes.
As for the salad? I cooked the barley in my rice cooker in ration of water to barley as 2-to-1. I also seasoned the water with a couple dashes of fish sauce and threw in some mushrooms to boot. I cut the leeks into half-moon pieces threw some more mushrooms and asparagus into a mixing bowl with them and seasoned with a pinch of salt, freshly ground pepper, and olive oil. When the barely was done I threw it into the bowl added a tad more olive oil and tossed the whole thing.
When it was all done, I sprinkled with lemon juice.
It was an interesting and tasty experiment. I will have to learn the ways of the leek.
