How many of you guys here really, really enjoy cooking and planning meals?

[DFB]

Another good type of summer squash tasty like the Italian "Zucchino" is that mid-eastern heritage Cousa (sometimes spelled Kusa)

A traditional recipe using the Cousa is hollowed and stuffed with meat and seasoned rice, tomatoes etc.


A similar if not the same is called Grey Squash


I've never had a Mexican Calabacita dish. But I will have to mention it to mi amigos at work and maybe they will bring me some this summer when the garden is ready

When I have an abundance of summer squash both the yellow and green usually and need to do something with it pronto, I often put up a big pot of fresh cut tomatoes, onions, both types of squash, maybe add a little garlic and diced green pepper and season (for me) with traditional itailan spices. After its cooked I can just freeze it...then nothing goes to waste.

I have never heard of Tatume squash before anyone grow it?

'Tatume': The Squash of Many Names | HortUpdate - June 2010 | Aggie Horticulture

 

[tcreeley]

Chickens also like zucchini. I cut them lengthwise in two pieces and the chickens do the rest. Great way to dispose of the ones that are past.

Last night I ran out of currants so I substituted dried cranberries in my no knead bread, along with the walnuts, ceylon cinnamon, demara sugar, flour and water. Later I will discover the outcome - but it should be ok. I am getting a new perspective on sweet/nut breads. I have always thought of banana bread as a cake gone wrong, so it is nice to do this with real bread!

 

[DFB]

Chickens also like zucchini. I cut them lengthwise in two pieces and the chickens do the rest. Great way to dispose of the ones that are past.

Ahh chicken with zucchini..another great recipe!

 

[sodamo]

Ahh chicken with zucchini..another great recipe!

Especially if both are grilled.
Drizzle some Olive oil on the zucchini, season with some garlic salt and pepper.
My favorite way to grill chicken is to split down the Breast, season and grill flat. I also like of the rotisserie which takes less minding if I turn at low temp, about 200°F until down then flash at high heat 5 minutes or so until crispy.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[OldMcDonald]

As are we Vintage box wine is all we proudly serve at our gatherings.

Nothing wrong with that. To me, wine is now a necessary complement to food. I have had at least a bottle a day of table wine since 1979 when we moved to Australia and I discovered wine was almost free. Less than a bottle a week was our previous intake in the UK - purely because of price. Most of that wine has been Chateau Cardboard as I call the boxes. I do not recall seeing them before moving to Australia. I know they were invented there, by a Hungarian immigrant I think, but not certain. Despite bottled wine being very cheap here too, I still buy the boxes and that is what I will be drinking tonight with roast chicken breasts. I always follow with Port & cheeses and Moscatel & almonds.

I do buy bottles of table wine, and will maybe have two a week, but not at fancy prices. It all comes down to value for money as far as I am concerned. Price per bottle in boxes is about €1 to €2. Some of the lower priced ones are quite good most of the time, but not always. Almost always drinkable, but occasionally they end up being used in cooking - Coq au vin mostly. I look for wines to cellar if I buy bottles. I have an enormous one as part of the lower level of the split level house - a former olive mill. I try one before buying a quantity. My criteria is that I have to obtain more enjoyment if I pay more money. I would not pay €20 for a bottle of wine for myself. I might as a present for someone. There is a huge range of very good wine here at under €5 but I have paid a little more for something I think might be really good in 10 years or more.

 

[OldMcDonald]

I was sowing tomato seeds and my wife reminded me we have quite a quantity of tomatoes still in the freezer. We freeze them whole and usually heat them in one pan and fry bacon in another. Anyway, a recipe my wife developed to use a quantity, either fresh or frozen, is as follows:-

TOMATO SOUCE.

No, not a spelling mistake. This is a cross between sauce and soup and can be used as either. The result is a consistency very similar to a condensed soup as bought in tins. On a hot summer's day I like it chilled as is for lunch, but in winter it is best diluted slightly and heated up. Lots of bread, made into ham or cream cheese sandwiches if you like, and a hard cheese grated on top results in a very pleasant glow inside on a cold day. We also use it as an emergency pasta sauce, although prefer our version of tomato paste or sauce.

For each 7 pounds of tomatoes of any variety, you will need 2 pounds each of carrots and onions, 2 bulbs of garlic, say about 20 cloves; 3 heaped teaspoons each of dried Oregano and Basil and about 5 tablespoons of sugar. We like a dark brown, like Muscavado, and the amount needed does depend a wee bit on the acidity level of the tomatoes used. Extra sugar can be added later if necessary, and it sometimes is. If the consumers are meat eaters, then half a pound of bacon and a beef stock cube add that extra flavour.

Slice the carrots and onions into a big pan and sweat them as you go. Roughly chop the tomatoes and add them, as they are prepared. Raise the heat. Put the other ingredients in and remove from heat as soon as the carrots and onions are soft. If done in the above order this will only be a matter of minutes after you have finished the tomatoes. Bung the lot through a blender or some form of food processor, divide into whatever serving sizes you like bearing in mind the possible alternative uses, and freeze.

.......................

The above is an extract from my book, and that is the style I use in the recipe section. It is assumed the reader is already a reasonable cook and can follow the instructions without the need to go into detail.

 

[IslandTractor]

Has anyone here tried sous vide cooking yet? I haven't but am rather fascinated at the descriptions of its advantages, especially for cooking meats to get both perfect internal temp and nice sear (the sear is applied after the cooking). Sous vide is a technique used extensively in restaurants and in preparation of things like the ready to eat pot roasts at Costco etc. For those who have never heard of the method, it is essentially using in a precisely (and I do mean precisely) controlled water bath to cook food that is either sealed in vacuum bags or just put in ziplock bags. The major advantage is that you can control the "doneness" precisely. If you like your steak medium rare then you set the water bath to (I'm guessing) 132 degrees F and "cook" the steaks for at least 90 minutes (timing not critical if you want to leave it in longer as it will never go above 132 degrees). You then remove the steak and throw it on a very hot grill for just long enough to put the sear you like on the surface. Can also use a very hot saute pan or griddle. You can even use a butane torch to apply the sear if you like!

A traditionally grilled steak will have a seared outside with then a layer of well done then a layer of medium and finally (hopefully) a middle that is medium rare. A sous vide cooked steak will have a seared outside, virtually no well done or medium and almost the entire steak very uniformly cooked medium rare. And, once you find the exact temperature you prefer, you can reproduce that exact degree of doneness every single time. Virtually all the commercial photographs of juicy steaks these days have been cooked sous vide. Also, rather than nervously watching the grill while your steaks are cooking, you can prepare the sous vide portion of cooking hours in advance and leave just a very simple two or three minute sear task just before eating.

I have been reading about sous vide cooking and assumed it was expensive to get the equipment. Turns out that was true until a year or two ago when a couple of US companies started making highly accurate water heaters that can simply be clamped to the side of virtually any stock pot or even a beer cooler. These things are no less accurate than the fancy machines the restaurants use, they just cannot cook the volume of food simultaneously. Still, the home oriented heaters can easily cook half a dozen steaks at once and can also be used for fish, eggs, veggies etc. Poached eggs can be done so that the whites are done and the yolk is runny all while the egg is still in the shell so they come out perfectly.

I haven't jumped in the sous vide pond yet but I might soon. Will probably get one of the stick heaters from a Texas company called Anova for under $180-200. Anova Culinary | Sous Vide Immersion Circulators and Precision Cookers by Anova Here is a review of several different types: We Test the Anova, Sansaire, and Nomiku Sous-Vide Circulators | Serious Eats These things are really just repurposed laboratory water bath heaters so the technology is very mature and highly accurate down to a fraction of a degree. The darn things even talk to your iphone and can be controlled from the iphone!

 

[TomSeller]

Has anyone here tried sous vide cooking yet?

I have heard a little about it, but have never tried it. Isn't it sort of like a water oven? Then you finish off meats as you like.

 

[IslandTractor]

I have heard a little about it, but have never tried it. Isn't it sort of like a water oven? Then you finish off meats as you like.

Water bath= water oven yes.

 

[SPIKER]

Just got a homemade pizza into the regular oven,

Lots of variations but we always raise our dough & pre-bake it to a brown crust on top (only a few min on medium high 400F or so) pull it out when top browns. Add all the goodies, one thing is we usually add Parmesan Cheese to the crust top & use either Olive Oil or Bacon grease (from the fried bacon) to coat pan & hands when spreading. We dont store our dough overnight in fridge but letting it raise up is needed. The pan spreading and into hot oven lets it rise just enough to make it fluffy crust with crispness on outside. Shoving fork into it makes a crunch when done way we like it.

add 3 or 4 pounds of fixings on top to taste (most fixings are pre-cooked other than some veggies we like crispy like onions) then layer it all up. We top w two layers of cheese (different types) with layer of 40 second microwaved pepperoni in between or bacon that stays crispy too...

5 min and counting & it will be in my hands for eating...
one from a while back




Mark