Culinaria: What's for dinner ?

[mitchellmckain]

Sounds good. How was it?

Last time we got tamales from a restaurant, everyone complained. They just were not as good as mine. I told them it was because of using cheese instead of lard. I have heart that starting with corn (nixtamal) makes the tamales and tortillas even better, but my one experiment with that just proved to me the difference wasn't worth quite that much work -- maybe if I had better equipment...

As for the homemade tortillas, they are good, but I wouldn't mind discovering the recipe used by some restaurants for the tortillas they make for soft tacos, for it might help me to improve my own.

[Watson]

You should try asking? Maybe not for the recipe, but if there is something different that they do, or an ingredient that kicks it up a notch. Can't hurt, if it is not a busy part of their day?

[mitchellmckain]

Today I made Gnocci Bolognese with Italian sausage and tomorrow it will be Chicken roasted in a spicy lemon sauce with pasta Carbonara on the side. These are the result of my search for new and different pasta sauces. I made the spicy lemon chicken before and my youngest really liked it. It was entirely my own creation and consisted of cooking assorted chicken piece in the oven with a sauce made from squeezing one whole fresh lemon with garlic, chopped peppers and onions, a tablespoon or two of sugar and a table spoon of Vietnamese hot pepper sauce called Sambal Oelek (and probably salt and fresh ground black pepper).

The itallian sausage was a mistake for it made today's dinner more spicy than I wanted. I need to learn to read "Italian sausage" as "spicy sausage" and go ahead and use the Bratwurst even if it is for an Italian dish. Both the Gnocci and the Bolgnese sauce were a bit of work. For the Gnocci it is rolling out the dough (made from mashed potato, flour, and egg) and chopping it into bite size pieces. For the Bolognese sauce it was roasting the spices (bay leaf, clove, peppercorns and fennel) and then grinding them up.

[Event Horizon]

This might get some bellies rumbling!

https://t.co/M3sLwwkppw

[mitchellmckain]

Last week I served baked potatoes with the option to top it with not only sour cream but mole. It was a hit.

Now the problem is that "mole" can mean many things. In my case, I only use the word for a spicy sauce that has nut and cocoa in it. As for my mole I usually use Don Marie's sauce from the grocery store (which already has some cocoa, peanut, and sesame in it) as a base then add to it. In this case I started with sauteing garlic, onions, and chopped pascilla peppers. To these I added chicken breast chopped fairly small and cook till the chicken is mostly done. Then I added the Don Marie with an generous dollop of almond butter. Once that is well mixed in, I added the chunky tomato sauce with a teaspoon of cocoa and a tablespoon of sugar. Most of the spice comes with the Don Marie but you can add more spicy pepper if you like. At least two in my family prefer food rather mild though (I like things a little spicy and my eldest son likes them more spicy than me).

[Serpent]

Sounds interesting - and complicated. I suppose, if were having the potato as a side dish, we could simplify it somewhat - leave the chicken out, and maybe just one kind of nut. I'd add a jalapeno or two.

Mole reminded me that you could probably use pesto on a baked potato. We happen to have a bumper crop of purple basil this year. Instead of pine nuts, I make it with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Pulverize the seeds in a small food mill before adding it to the garlic, basil leaves and olive oil in the processor.

[mitchellmckain]

Today was my third time making chinese roast pork. It is a marinated pork with lots of flavor cut into thin slices. It is particularly good for adding to ramen noodles -- just a couple slices as a garnish. Though my eldest took some in order to make a filling for chinese steam buns.

I found three bottle of molasses in the back of the cupboard, probably from someone buying it for a recipe and then forgetting about it. So I looked up what you can do with it. Mostly I found two things: barbecue sauce and gingerbread (including all kinds of ginger snaps and cookies). Then I found a few kinds of candy.

My first effort was to make molasses taffy and I am not sure why it failed. It looked and tasted like taffy when I cut and wrapped it, but a couple hours later and it turned into something like fudge. This week I made ginger snap cookies and it was a great success. I added a bit of candied ginger, made myself by boiling chopped ginger in water and sugar. As a result I needed to thicken it wit more flour and some oats. They turned out quite nicely. One bottle of molasses down and two more to go. Next I may try a recipe for molasses sea foam candy.