The Cooking Thread

speaking of raisins - to this day, if  meatballs don't have raisins in them (like Mom made 'em), I'm disappointed. I'm pretty much always disappointed, unless I make them.

When you cook the raisins in the meatball, the raisin sort of dissolves into this little internal burst of sweetness. I think the sweetness compliments the tomato sauce.

Speaking of which - as a kid I remember, after a pasta meal (twice a week at least, without fail), cutting up an apple and dragging the pieces through the sauce left in my dish. Delicious.

Morganna said:

DB, you reminded me of a recipe that I can not clearly remember. It was Sicilian mashed potatoes. They had the juice of an orange mixed in, probably garlic, black pepper and olive oil and I baked them on a cookie sheet. I also remember my grandfather eating oranges as a salad with oil and black pepper on them. Apparently the Arab influence brought oranges and other fruit into the recipes. I know raisins showed up in a Pasta di San Giuseppe, at least in my grandpa's version.

I'm making myself hungry.

I've taken to doing the following lately:

I buy a small tub of peeled garlic from the Rt 10 Farmer's Market.  In order to make it last longer, as I don;'t use all that garlic before it starts to turn, I take about 10-15 cloves at  a time and fry them in olive oil for about 15 minutes. The cloves turn luscious and sweet, like they've been roasted, but this is a lot more convenient. I use a tiny frying pan  - about 4 inches wide, if that, so I only need a few tablespoons of olive oil to cover the cloves. Then I just pull the cloves out and keep them in a pyrex dish with a cover on it in the fridge. They're good for a week at least. (please note that I have very loose standards as regards to  refrigerated food storage. e.g. I'm of the opinion that an unopened yogurt basically can't ever go bad. so, your mileage may vary.) When I use the garlic I just smash it into a paste first.

Tonight I made something, for the first time, that my Mom used to make all the time, and that I resolutely turned up my nose to every time it was served. Swiss chard and potatoes. I added lots of that fried garlic above, and some italian sausage, and it was freaking delicious and easy to make. It's going on my regular meal rotation.

drummerboy said:

I've taken to doing the following lately:

I buy a small tub of peeled garlic from the Rt 10 Farmer's Market.  In order to make it last longer, as I don;'t use all that garlic before it starts to turn, I take about 10-15 cloves at  a time and fry them in olive oil for about 15 minutes. The cloves turn luscious and sweet, like they've been roasted, but this is a lot more convenient. I use a tiny frying pan  - about 4 inches wide, if that, so I only need a few tablespoons of olive oil to cover the cloves. Then I just pull the cloves out and keep them in a pyrex dish with a cover on it in the fridge. They're good for a week at least. (please note that I have very loose standards as regards to  refrigerated food storage. e.g. I'm of the opinion that an unopened yogurt basically can't ever go bad. so, your mileage may vary.) When I use the garlic I just smash it into a paste first.

Cook it more slowly and you'll be making garlic confit. It stays good for quite a while.

drummerboy said:

speaking of raisins - to this day, if  meatballs don't have raisins in them (like Mom made 'em), I'm disappointed.

This is my go-to meatball recipe. 

From Frankies Spuntino. Outstanding.

thanks. Looks promising, and today is pasta week, so I think I'll give them a try.

ETA: I thought this recipe looked familiar.  I have a recipe labeled Frankie's Meatballs, which is the same recipe, sol I've made them a few times before.

I just made them tonight and they came out super light and fluffy - probably too much bread. I prefer them denser myself, but they're delicious.

Think I'll go have another.

BrickPig said:

drummerboy said:

speaking of raisins - to this day, if  meatballs don't have raisins in them (like Mom made 'em), I'm disappointed.

This is my go-to meatball recipe. 

From Frankies Spuntino. Outstanding.

Have fallen behind in reading this thread. It seems to me that recipes are not copyrighted...I have seen many places that use recipes. Occasionally they attribute to their source, but often not. After all cooking is a lot of using other people's recipes. Who is to say that different cooks would not come up with the same ideas?

gerryl said:

Have fallen behind in reading this thread. It seems to me that recipes are not copyrighted...I have seen many places that use recipes. Occasionally they attribute to their source, but often not. After all cooking is a lot of using other people's recipes. Who is to say that different cooks would not come up with the same ideas?

I'm not sure whether or not you're specifically addressing the meatball recipe Drummerboy and I have referenced, but it is from the Frankies Spuntino restaurants and is published in their restaurant cookbook. I have also seen it reproduced online in a number of different places, but always credited to Frankies.

But generally speaking, your statement regarding copyright seems to be correct. From the U.S. Copyright Office:

 Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. ...Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook. Feb 6, 2012

https://www.copyright.gov/fls/...

For peppers, I cut the ends off, make a slit and just run the knife around the inside which removes everything you don't want. I am not sure why ATK always wants to make things more complicated than they should be...

I love raisins and I love meatballs but never had one inside the other. I'd love to try it.  

haha .I just read a cooks illustrated article about how to fry the perfect egg. It's utterly ridiculous. It's beyond parody.

https://www.cooksillustrated.c...

marylago said:

For peppers, I cut the ends off, make a slit and just run the knife around the inside which removes everything you don't want. I am not sure why ATK always wants to make things more complicated than they should be...

for the life of me though, I'm embarrassed that I couldn't figure this out by myself. I've been roasting peppers whole my whole life, and it's always a pain in the butt.

marylago said:

For peppers, I cut the ends off, make a slit and just run the knife around the inside which removes everything you don't want. I am not sure why ATK always wants to make things more complicated than they should be...

I haven't been on MOL for a bit.  This is a great thread. I am going to check out Frankies Spuntino and also the Cooks Illustrated eggs as I have become a little obsessive over proper eggs. 

I am self taught in the kitchen, and years ago, once served pancakes with soupy middles to my partner. Being the champion that he is, he ate every last one.  After that, our cooking adventures began and we are MUCH improved. I make our breads and tortillas from scratch now. One of my favorite ways to use up food getting ready to spoil is to make a batch of soup with it.  Soup can easily be tossed in the freezer.  I am a fan of Anna Thomas and her cookbook, "Love Soup".  I've made nearly every soup in the book, give or take a few substituted ingredients here and there.

CompassRose said:

I am a fan of Anna Thomas and her cookbook, "Love Soup".  I've made nearly every soup in the book, give or take a few substituted ingredients here and there.

Speaking of substituting ingredients, if you haven't already done so I highly recommend everyone search YouTube for episodes of any of Nigella Lawson's TV shows. I knew her name, but nothing much about her until I stumbled across an entire season of Nigella Bites while I was home sick one day. Since then, her shows are my go-to for whiling away an hour or so. I don't care so much about the recipes themselves, necessarily, but I absolutely LOVE her attitude in the kitchen -- nothing is precious or sacred. Wonderful.

As one of my BBQ gurus often says, "Cook more, measure less." 

I'm with ya - I don't measure so much as I taste as I go.  Apparently that doesn't really work with baking.  Glad I generally don't bake.

BrickPig said:




As one of my BBQ gurus often says, "Cook more, measure less." 

Yeah, cooking is just food + heat. Baking is chemistry. I love to bake, too, but it's not the same as cooking.

I've been baking more myself lately - getting decent at it. I also just bought a new bread machine which I like to use. I've been making various types of sausage breads, looking to find a good recipe that'll be a keeper.

I share your obsession about eggs. (one of my day dream musings is to open an egg-based eatery of some kind)

I'm always in search of the perfectly cooked yolk. I heard about the 60 degree egg in the past year (or is it 63? that's C not F) and for awhile that was the only way I'd cook an egg. The way I did it was to just cook it  in a pan at low temp for x minutes (forgot what x was) and it did seem to me that the yolks came out extra-luxurious that way. But I don't know if I ever hit the magic 60 degree mark. I'll have to re-visit that.

I once tried to sous-vide eggs to get that perfect temp, but the eggs were hard to eat. They were basically soft-boiled, but I had the darnedest time cracking them open without making a mess.

Speaking of eggs - why is it next to impossible to get a properly cooked omelet or egg scramble in a NJ diner? I always ask for them to be soft, and I think I've had them come back soft exactly one time in the last twenty. Route 22 Diner, if you're wondering. (I think that's the name -  a newish place on the westbound side.)

CompassRose said:

I haven't been on MOL for a bit.  This is a great thread. I am going to check out Frankies Spuntino and also the Cooks Illustrated eggs as I have become a little obsessive over proper eggs. 

...

Speaking of baking, did anyone make this recipe that was in the NYTimes Sunday magazine a few weeks ago? https://cooking.nytimes.com/re...

I was so intrigued by the technique of laminating the dough with butter that I tried it, and really enjoyed it. Sadly my first attempt was marred by yeast that was too old, but it was still good and I am going to try again. Two things though, there is a typo in the recipe where it says to work 2 Tablespoons of butter into the work surface and 1 Tablespoon in with your finger to each of 16 pieces of dough. (!) But the recipe only calls for 16 Tablespoons of butter to be worked into the dough, so clearly they meant 2 teaspoons/1 teaspoon of butter. Also, the claim that this can be prepped in an hour is absurd! Still a fun recipe with an interesting technique of rolling out the dough in pieces, then rolling the thin dough into a log, and then wrapping the log into a spiral,  I had only ever used this spiral technique once before when making scallion pancakes. Fun and yields great flaky, buttery results.

oy, that's a lot of work.

I have made pull-apart bread a few times in the last couple of months though. All of them had an Italian sausage/pepperoni/pizza thing going on.

The first recipe was from Cooks, I think, and that was a lot of work. (similar to the Times, you rolled the dough into a log, with meat inside of the log.) But it came out pretty well. Then I found a cheater's way out. Instead of making your own dough, and then carefully encasing the meat into independent dough balls, this recipe used a tube of pizza dough and a tube of biscuit dough. You cut up the pizza dough into about 8-10 pieces, toss all the pieces with a bit of oil and spices, and then you just layer it up in a bundt pan - lay some dough down, then just place the sausage on top of that layer, plus some tomato sauce, and do that a couple of times. 10 times easier and just as tasty.

finnegan said:

Speaking of baking, did anyone make this recipe that was in the NYTimes Sunday magazine a few weeks ago? https://cooking.nytimes.com/re...

I was so intrigued by the technique of laminating the dough with butter that I tried it, and really enjoyed it. Sadly my first attempt was marred by yeast that was too old, but it was still good and I am going to try again. Two things though, there is a typo in the recipe where it says to work 2 Tablespoons of butter into the work surface and 1 Tablespoon in with your finger to each of 16 pieces of dough. (!) But the recipe only calls for 16 Tablespoons of butter to be worked into the dough, so clearly they meant 2 teaspoons/1 teaspoon of butter. Also, the claim that this can be prepped in an hour is absurd! Still a fun recipe with an interesting technique of rolling out the dough in pieces, then rolling the thin dough into a log, and then wrapping the log into a spiral,  I had only ever used this spiral technique once before when making scallion pancakes. Fun and yields great flaky, buttery results.

Indonesian meatball soup: bakso!

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/wor...

And a recipe:

http://www.indofoodstore.com/b...

Anybody has a good gluten-free pizza dough recipe they've tried?  I've tried a few and am unhappy with the results.  Thanks!

angelak said:

Have any of you tried making veggie burgers using chickpea flour as a binder?

Yes. I love chick pea flour. I've created lots of veggie burger variations. A fave INCLUDED chick peas or lentils, mushrooms Quinoa, Dr braggs, etc. 

NotoriousEAM said:

Anybody has a good gluten-free pizza dough recipe they've tried?  I've tried a few and am unhappy with the results.  Thanks!

I made an Against the Grain (or against all grains?) copycat crust which included cheese and tapioca flour. It was so rich and delicious, but a serious pain in the neck to make (and a big mess). Not the same but I've been buying a GF pizza crust mix from Aldi and it's really ok. I also like just making a chick pea flour flat bread and using that. Not the same as pizza crust but delicious.  https://glutenfreeonashoestrin...

the Aldi version is good (when I have guests aneed something quick and easy). Or, there's a potato-slices flan base that's a traditional French version. (Dates from the earliest potato-eating era in France. From memory, they'll put almost anything on top, binding it with either cheese & tomato purée or cheese/egg/cream, depending on the depth and effect you want. 

I grew up with this as a Passover pizza. 

Could you share the recipe?   I bought dried chickpeas to make my own flour.

shh said:

angelak said:

Have any of you tried making veggie burgers using chickpea flour as a binder?

Yes. I love chick pea flour. I've created lots of veggie burger variations. A fave INCLUDED chick peas or lentils, mushrooms Quinoa, Dr braggs, etc. 

angelak said:

Could you share the recipe?   I bought dried chickpeas to make my own flour.

shh said:

angelak said:

Have any of you tried making veggie burgers using chickpea flour as a binder?

Yes. I love chick pea flour. I've created lots of veggie burger variations. A fave INCLUDED chick peas or lentils, mushrooms Quinoa, Dr braggs, etc. 

I'll check my Pinterest to see if I have an actual recipe. Pretty sure I've improvised. I've tried using dried chick peas to make the chick pea flour. You really need a high speed blender. I prefer buying the chick pea flour from the Indian market, or city supermarket had it as well last time I was there. If you are unfamiliar look up recipes for socca or farinata. I forget exact proportions but approx 1/4 cup chick pea four, warm water, salt, pinch of cumin and olive oil. Let rest? Usefor crepes or make smaller pancake size. Great as a base for sautéed veggies. Or mix in veggies and bake like a savory tart in the oven. You can also use to make chick pea flour tofu or a vegan scramble. 

chick pea flour tofu: The longer it sits the more firm it gets, worth playing around and experimenting.https://www.deliciouseveryday....

socca: chick pea flour pancake, basic recipe. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/s...

this recipe uses chick pea flour mixed with veggies to make a casserole type dish that can be cut into portions. This uses Indian spices but you can omit and sub in other veggies.

https://tastespace.wordpress.c...