Where my fellow cooks at???

[shafnutz05]

Stopped in to Wegmans today to pick up a six-pack, and noticed some promo stuff for Bobby Flay doing a book signing on the 26th. He has a new book coming out "Barbecue Addiction", which is naturally right down my alley. Got a voucher to go back to the signing then, should be pretty cool.

[eddysnake]

Made Alabama blueberry bread, 10 minutes of prep turned into 2 hours, please drink responsibly

[tifosi77]

Nothing fancy, just some jerk chicken and Caribbean sweet potato salad to kick off grilling season.



(Okay, yes I cooked the chicken ghetto sous vide for 90 minutes and only finished it on the grill for about 3 minutes total to kiss it with some char and smoke. Sue me.)

[shmenguin]

homemade chili oil...

i put canola oil and dried new mexico red chiles in a pan and let them cook for a half hour or so. then i put the mixture in the fridge for a few weeks. turned out ok. not as hot as i'd like. maybe those chiles aren't the best to use for something like this.

[Letang Is The Truth]

got a waffle iron (highly recommended: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) from woot a few weeks ago and i have been doing some experimenting. made some jalapeno cheddar a few weeks ago that were excellent and made blackberry almond yesterday with a little whipped that was heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and a little orange juice, blackberry, sugar reduction mixed together. very yum

[columbia]

I made leftover pot roast (chuck roast to be specific) tacos last night.
Yep, they were good.

[tifosi77]

Last night's dinner:

Veal Chop SV, Mushrooms, Herb Butter

This is a riff on a recipe by Eric Ripert in "A Return To Cooking". Chops cooked 'faux vide' for 2 hours at 57° C. Mushrooms (Shiitake and Maitake) sauteed in EVOO with a little garlic. Parsley, basil and sage blanched in hot water, then pureed and combined with a butter sauce (225 g butter with 40 g water).

The balance of the sauce was out of whack; just tasted like liquefied parsley. And it was way too runny. As I was prepping, I toyed with the idea of thickening the sauce with xanthan. But when it came down to service, I completely forgot. So...... yeah.

homemade chili oil...

i put canola oil and dried new mexico red chiles in a pan and let them cook for a half hour or so. then i put the mixture in the fridge for a few weeks. turned out ok. not as hot as i'd like. maybe those chiles aren't the best to use for something like this.

Cooked too long. A lot of the volatile oils that lend both heat and flavor will evaporate with that long of a cook. Suggest trying again, but this time only cooking the chiles for maybe 5 minutes, tops. You also want to avoid getting the oil too hot; keep the temp under 250° F for best results. Bring the oil to temp, add chiles, cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat, cool to ambient, transfer to container. If this is an oil used for cooking, don't bother straining; the chiles will continue to steep and make the oil get a little hotter over about a week or so. However, if you want to put this in say a glass bottle for use as a condiment, then I'd suggest straining out the solids when transferring.

Also, did you cut the chiles into pieces? If you let the seeds get into the oil directly that should help amp up the heat level. New Mexico chiles have a decent heat level, so they should make for a good foundation of a chile oil.

[shmenguin]

thanks for the tips. it'll be half condiment half cooking oil, so i strained everything out. the baby bottle sanitizer came in handy for the bottle i'm using for the oil. i heard it's important to keep things clean.

for some reason, i thought the more i cooked, the more heat would get into the oil. it makes sense that the heat would "cook off", though. i also left the chiles whole.

not bad for a first try, anyways. it's hot enough to punch up a couple recipes. i heard chile oil is nice to mix in with mashed potatoes.

[tifosi77]

Remember, capsaicin - the compound that gives chiles their heat - is itself essentially an oil. That means it's oil-soluble, which is why it lends itself to oil infusions. It's also why using oil when you've got chile residue on your skin is a good way to clear the irritant. (And why ice cream, with its milk fat, is so effective at taming a mouth that's been scorched by one too many habaneros.)

[columbia]

Beer batter tilapia tacos with a vinegar slaw and pineapple salsa.

[ExPatriatePen]

Decided to make Chicken Marsala tonight. (Easy but for some reason I just have this craving for Chicken Marsala today).

Anyway, I need to go out and buy some Marsala wine. I know better than to buy that crap in the grocery store. But i need suggestions on what a good brand is in your local "bottle shop" or "package store".

T.i.A.

[mac5155]

My fiancee got a new set of kitchenaid ceramic pots and pans at her bridal shower yesterday. So these things aren't dishwasher safe?

[BadHands71]

My fiancee got a new set of kitchenaid ceramic pots and pans at her bridal shower yesterday. So these things aren't dishwasher safe?

Alot of ceramic stuff isn't dishwasher safe because the heat can destroy the ceramic coating over time, especially if it's non-stick. I'm honestly not a huge fan of non-stick cookware but to each their own. I like being able to throw things in the dishwasher and not worry about the utensils I use scratching the coating. We have a few non-stick pans that aren't bad but took the wedding as an opportunity to upgrade to some All-Clad stainless.

Dishwasher safe is a huge thing for me and something I checked on with just about everything on our registry.

[columbia]

Bourdain returns tonight at 9 on CNN.
That's kind of a lousy time slot, but maybe that sort of thing doesn't matter these days.

[count2infinity]

with this warm weather, I grilled my dough for our two pizzas tonight. One is a classic margherita pizza (Fresh mozz, marinated tomato slices and fresh basil) and the other is a new one I'm trying. Artichokes, mushrooms, feta cheese, and a spinach salad on top of after it's out of the oven. If they're any good, I'll post pictures.

[count2infinity]

pictures as promised:

Spoiler:

the feta/artichoke/mushroom/spinach pizza was delicious.

[ExPatriatePen]

Ahhhhhh.... You didn't have to break it the good china.

[count2infinity]

Does it make me a bad Pens fan to have orange as my favorite color?

[Godric]

Does it make me a bad Pens fan to have orange as my favorite color?

Orange is my favorite color as well.

Spoiler:

Bike I broke my wrist on -

[FreeCandy44]

Does it make me a bad Pens fan to have orange as my favorite color?

Well........

[viva la ben]

Bourdain returns tonight at 9 on CNN.
That's kind of a lousy time slot, but maybe that sort of thing doesn't matter these days.

I'll watch the now 3rd iteration of his show. The last season on Travel channel was subpar IMHO.

[mac5155]

I know it's been covered but how do you grill pizza dough? Straight on the racks or on a wood slab?

[count2infinity]

I grill the dough right on the rack. I use the grill just to cook the dough. I don't cook the full pizza on the grill.

Clean your racks with your grill scrapper, oil them up, put the grill on high and I have a pizza peel/spatula combo that I use to put the dough on. I flip it and cook both sides, take it off, dress the pizza then put it in a 500 degree oven until it's done.

[mac5155]

How long do you grill it per side?

[count2infinity]

ummmm... maybe 2 minutes or so? I'm not sure really, i just check under where I know a hot spot on my grill is and when it's starting to char, I turn it/take it off the grill.