I’ve got a bunch of depressing items in the queue to blog here, but this is the time of evening (after dark, before [ETA: most of the] primary results) when we can do a little community.
So let’s go back to one of the blog’s core fixations: eating well by our own hands. I don’t know about all of youse, but the shelter-in-place regimen makes me want to cook, every day, in quantities that soon run into tribble-esque storage problems. So, kind of at random, I’m going to share some of what I’ve been doing lately, and y’all can fill in the comments with either your zombie apocalypse g0-tos or anything else, for that matter.
First up: a steak sauce I invented out of the fridge a while back that is just…really nice:
For one big rib steak (i.e., dinner for two): put a healthy glug of olive oil, four or five tablespoons in your smallest saucepan. Chop up a lot of garlic (two or three big cloves) and poach them in the oil with a pinch of salt–bring ’em to a bare simmer and then keep the heat pegged as low as it can go. While that’s mellowing, chop up three or so papadew peppers (again fine), and peel off a good sized piece of lemon rind. Toss both of those in the pan, raise the heat enough to bring it back up to a bare simmer, and then adjust the temp to keep it there. Chop up a couple of scallions — the white part and an inch or so of the green–again, to a fine mince. Add a generous teaspoon of prepared horseradish, a rounded teaspoon of good mustard, and toss in the scallions. Cook till the scallions wilt and lose their raw bite. Taste, add salt and pepper as needed, and if you want a hint of sweetness, throw in a bit of syrup, and cook for another minute.
Sounds weird, I know, and I’m sorry about the quantities–but that’s as precise as I’ve ever known it. It’s really a great steak dipping sauce (and bizarrely is not bad as a late night jolt on pasta).
Next up, and speaking of pasta: I can really recommend this Amanda Hesser recipe for a really lovely pasta sauce. For religious heritage reasons, I don’t cook with pork in my own kitchen (my kashrut is notional, but childhood habits die hard), so I substitute my local Whole Foods lamb kofta–they sell it as either seasoned ground meat or patties–along with the 1 lb bricks of ground veal they were regularly stocking before our current hordeapalooza. My only real variation is to add a couple of teaspoons of freshly ground fennel seed and a little bit of Ricard pastis–any anise flavored digestif will do–added with the wine. This brings out the astringent edge of the fennel really nicely (and can even make up for those times you start to make this and realize you don’t have any fresh fennel). That, and I use good linguine or fettucine, because I don’t really like penne that much…but YMMV.
I’ll save a couple of other recent pleasures for later posts, but one more for now, because, as you may remember, I believe that roast chicken is the one plausible piece of evidence that the FSM exists and loves us.
Long ago, I filmed Michael Romano, chef (then) of the Union Square Cafe in New York. He was a lovely man, and his job that day was to cook up an analogy to the way galaxies cook stars into greater and greater concentrations of metals. Neil deGrasse Tyson played his sidekick, and you can see the scene here, starting at about 42 minutes in.
All that is prelude to the fact that doing that shoot got me a copy of Michael’s Union Square Cookbook–which has mostly sat on my kitchen shelf for the last many years. Recently, though, I’ve started to poke around in it, and I came across his mom’s baked chicken dish, which, slightly modified, has become a crave-inducing star of the rotation in our house.
The recipe as written calls for a 3.5 lb chicken cut into pieces. My wife and I both prefer dark meat, so we just went with thighs alone the first time. Here’s how it goes:
salt and pepper the chicken pieces.
Thinly slice three medium onions. (Michael wrote 3 cups, but my onions don’t come marked that way. This works.)
Thinly slice 2-3 garlic cloves.
Get out 8 thyme sprigs
Slice one and a bit lemons thinly — you’ll want about ten good rounds–and reserve the rest of the second lemon for juice.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Dredge the chicken in flour and then brown them in olive oil in an ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven. When they’re done, put them aside.
The recipe says you should throw out the fat and add more olive oil. My bubbe would have scolded me for that, so I just drain enough of the rendered fat-oil mix so that my cardiologist doesn’t shout at me. Toss in the onions and cook over medium-low heat until they’re soft, adding the garlic when you feel like it. This takes about fifteen minutes, or more if you go really low and slow (which is delicious, but I want to eat tonight.) Add a little salt and pepper.
In a departure from the recipe, I brown the lemon slices in a little oil while this going on. Medium low heat again, and don’t burn them, but give them just a bit of brown. When the onions are done, lay the thyme sprigs across them. Put the lemon slices down, and lay the chicken pieces on top of them.
The recipe now says to add the lemon juice you’ve squeezed from whatever you didn’t slice and 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. That’s a lot, and I don’t. Instead, I put in about half a cup of stock and an unmeasured quarter to half a cup of white wine.
Bung it in the oven, covered, baste it after about fifteen minutes, and check it from ten to fifteen minutes after that; it will be done sooner than you think.
That comes out great, and I can’t say how satisfying it is to have such a simple prep turn out so well…
But what we did two nights ago was even better. I got a really good whole chicken from a local speciality butcher, spatchcocked it and flattened it as much as I could, floured it and browned it whole. Did all the steps up to assembling the dish for the oven as written above, but at the stock/wine stage added pastis again. Not too much — a couple of tablespoons at most. It needed a bit more liquid when I came to baste it, so I added just a touch more stock and then, when I pulled it from the oven, I lifted the chicken out and stirred in a good tablespoon or so of chopped tarragon, mixing it into the onion mixture just long enough to infuse the sauce with that chicken-lemon-tarragon magic.
It was fabulous. If I’m using a whole bird the next time I cook this, I’ll drop the oven temperature a bit, probably to 350. Also, not that long ago, my sister in law gave us a tagine pot, and I’d like to try doing the oven portion of this in that, as we’ve found that the steaming that happens in the tagine leaves a creamier texture in the meat. But trust me: this is dead easy, quick to prepare, and fabulous…and even more, an utterly satisfying way to push back the chaos outside the walls. Therapy in a saute pan.
That’s enough. I’m hungry. Heading off to deal with that.
Digest amongst yourselves…
Images: Pieter Bruegel the elder, Peasant Wedding, 1566-1569
Rose Hartwell The Frugal Meal, 1903
Joachim Beuckelaer, The Well-Stocked Kitchen, 1566
JPL
Someone earlier mentioned a channel called Quarantine Kitchen. lol
Fair Economist
I do most of the family cooking and I enjoy it. Unfortunately right now it looks tricky to get all the ingredients for recipes. Today the only meat was beef stew meat. Anybody got some good rice and beans recipes?
Mary G
My housemate just gave me a plate of chicken and rice; not as gourmet, but something I would not make for myself, and it’s lovely.
hells littlest angel
I’ll bet the Soylent guy is on tenterhooks waiting for the orders to come pouring in.
Unless he has died of chronic constipation.
Kent
I need a good chocolate cake recipe for my daughter’s birthday on Friday. Normally I’d just buy one but a cake sitting in a display cabinet kind of unnerves me.
She wants a good chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting.
I could google up a ton of recipes but curious if anyone has a favorite. Kid friendly so no weird stuff like nuts or orange peel or anything like that.
Roger Moore
My big discovery recently was how well a pressure cooker works to make easy chicken soup. I put a couple of chicken breasts (bone in, skin on) in a pressure cooker, added a package of prepared mirepoix, covered it with water, and pressure cooked for 1 hour. At that point, I took out the chicken, removed the bones and skin, and returned the shredded meat to the pot. I then added a package of frozen mixed vegetables, more water, and some noodles, and cooked it until the noodles were al dente. It took some time, but that’s true of practically any good soup; the amount of effort was pretty minimal considering the quality of results.
ETA: I forgot to mention adding herbs (bay leaf, thyme, and rosemary) and salt to taste.
Tom Levenson
@Fair Economist: Our usual stores have been uneven. Sometimes the meat case is pretty well stocked, sometimes the locusts have been through.
I expect it will settle down in a week or so.
Kevin the Hen
@JPL: Milk Street, my current favorite magazine (offshoot of Cooks Illustrated, long story) is making all their on-line courses free:
177milkstreet.com/school/classes/online-classes/
Love me some Christopher Kimball, bowtie and all!
JPL
@Kent: Just wait a few minutes and you will have several..
mali muso
@Kent: I’m a big fan of King Arthur Flour (their recipes and their flour). Here’s a link to a classic WWII era recipe that may be well-timed for a come-back as it doesn’t need eggs, milk or butter. It’s my go-to recipe for cake and my picky toddler likes it. If it’s too boring, their website has loads more chocolate cake recipes you could try. Good luck!
JPL
@Kevin the Hen: Thanks ..
Grover Gardner
Does anyone else think that that pasta painting looks like the family moved into Vermeer’s old apartment?
Or maybe it’s by the famous Italian artist, Vermeercelli. ;-)
Martin
Who puts up a chicken recipe on St Patricks day? Today is a good day for a reuben recipe.
There was no shortage of corned beef in the stores here in SoCal. Not a shock. Late dinner due to scheduling around finals.
Narya
@Fair Economist: go to the recipes section of the Rancho Gordo website. And Smitten Kitchen has all kinds of recipes including for kids’ birthday cakes.
dmsilev
@Kent: Not quite chocolate butter cream, but how about this one:
Intense Chocolate Mousse Cake
I’ve made it in the past and it’s very good.
CarolPW
@Kent: Do you have three 9″ cake pans? If so, I have a recipe that I cook every year for the birthday of first my boyfriend who became my spouse and then my ex-spouse, but we still eat together at least once a week. Not a buttercream frosting though, just sour cream and semisweet chocolate. The whole thing is not too sweet, but very major chocolate.
Gin & Tonic
@mali muso: And if you are in a reasonable distance of Vermont, their baking school is first-rate.
Duane
@Kent: Adam has a chocolate cake recipe he swears by. He’s posted it before.
gene108
@Fair Economist:
I don’t have a rice recipe, other than boil the rice.
For beans, I am repurposing my lazy ass chole (chick peas curry) recipe, which should work with most beans
Heat vegetable oil in pan (just enough to coat pan). Oil will get very hot. Oils that smoke at low temps (olive oil) would not be good,
Cut 1/2 onion
1-2 cloves of garlic. I like finally chopped garlic or use garlic press. YMMV
1-2 tomatoes (small), chopped into 1/4 or 1/8’s pieces. Smaller pieces cook faster.
1-2 dried crushed dried red chilies (can use chopped green chilies, or none, depends on your taste)
Small handful of mustard seeds
Salt to taste
STEPS
Add mustard seeds & chilies cold oil
Turn on stove. When oil is hot enough for mustard seeds to pop (very hot) add onions and garlic
Once onions get slightly tender, add beans and tomatoes
Let simmer. Taste as you cook, until you are happy with taste or tired of waiting
Let it cool a bit.
Serve w/ rice
Elizabelle
@mali muso: That looks fabulous. Have all the ingredients for it, too. Many thanks. The WWII generation was highly resourceful.
Did your husband make it back safely??
Feathers
My go-to pasta comfort food these days is Lemon Butter Angel Hair Pasta
The directions say a splash of lemon juice, but I do a half for the quantity in the recipe and a whole if any larger. The angel hair pasta does soak up all the liquid and the fact that it’s broken up into small pieces makes it a spoonable dish. Very important. Can gussy up frozen, nuked broccoli nicely.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Dang. That’s behind the NYTimes recipe paywall.
Any interest in cutting and pasting it?
Am a FTF NYTimes subscriber, and I hate that they have monetized their recipes, and their crossword. No fair. Maybe they have peeps who subscribe to the recipes and skip the news sub.
JPL
@gene108: Ha.. My rice recipe is buy Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice.
Avalie
@Fair Economist:
I made this last week using dried beans instead of canned. Was very easy and good.
damndelicious.net/2019/04/15/red-beans-and-rice/
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle:
In case she is gone because he is arriving home… she recently got word from him that he had landed at their airport. It must be in the previous thread, toward the bottom.Never mind. She is still here, I’ll let her answer for herself.
mali muso
@Gin & Tonic: I wish! Definitely on my list of things to do at some point on a road trip in the future. :)
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: I nearly sent you email so you would be aware of this thread and the chocolate cake question. You are the king of chocolate cake.
gene108
@gene108:
Should read “add vegetable oil” not “heat”
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: That’s great to hear.
gene108
@JPL:
I did not know frozen rice existed
JPL
@gene108: A few years ago the son and dil introduced it to me from whole foods. OMG what a god send for brown rice. That was always a staple when my children were younger but now you are talking about a few microwave minutes.
mali muso
@Elizabelle: Yes, he texted about an hour ago that his plane landed. And I promptly burst into tears…which surprised me cuz I thought I was pretty cool and collected.
I think busting out some classic recipes is going to be a thing in the coming days if and when kitchens run low on some supplies and folks can’t run out to the corner store. This particular recipe is not only tasty but happens to be vegan, so in the days when we weren’t social distancing, I liked to bring it to potlucks.
gene108
@JPL:
Grew up with my mom cooking a few days of rice in the pressure cooker. Also reheated in a pressure cooker.
Took 10-15 minutes.
Pressure cooker was always on stove top.
But frozen veggies, rice, etc. are godsends for having to cook something quickly.
JCNZ
Here’s a REALLY EASY bread recipe. Tartine quality. One hour 45 from beginning to eating.
3 cups of flour (I use white)
2 teaspoons of yeast (yep, two)
1 teaspoon of salt
A generous slug of red wine vinegar (“For sweetness and that extra tang,” as the great Australian songsmith Paul Kelly would say)
1 and one 1/2 cups of the hottest tap water (not boiling)
Mix, and put in a warm place for one hour (I use the microwave). Set your timer for 30 minutes.
When the times goes off, turn your oven to High and put in a Dutch oven or a casserole dish with a lid to heat up. Set your timer for another 30 minutes (you’ve put the mix aside for an hour, remember).
When the timer goes off again, pour the mix onto a sheet of baking paper and put it into the casserole dish and then into the oven. No kneading, no resting. I use scissors to cut a line along the top so that the bread expands as it cooks.
Bake it for 30 minutes, remove the lid, bake it for a further 15 so that the crust is golden (or longer if you like it caramelised – another burst of flavour).
If you can, let it cool before you slice it.
I got this recipe from a site called JennyCanCook (dot) com. The red wine vinegar was my brother’s idea – it’s a brilliant addition.
Take care, you jackals! “Live dangerously, take life as it comes, dread naught, all will be well,” as Winston Churchill said in 1937 (ignore the “Live dangerously” part for now).
Jay Noble
Great activity for the Quarantine Days – Learn to cook the basics; Teach the kids to cook the basics; Brush up on your skills.
Basics: Eggs – Fried, scrambled, poached, omletted, boiled; Bacon, Sausage, Hamburger, Hot Dogs, Pot Poast, Corned Beef, Potatoes and so on.
If you are vegetarian or vegan what better time to experiment
I love that Cole has his homemade canned food, but don’t be afraid of store bought. Canned/preserved food got us this far.
And for many folks, this would be a great time to follow Cole’s example and start a garden.
Aleta
@CarolPW: I’d love to see that recipe. Not too sweet is good for the folks here.
Feathers
I’ve been making Pyrex Bowl Peasant Bread, which is a no-knead bread recipe that only takes two hours:
1 cup flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1 rounded tsp instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (3/4 c tap water, topped off w/ 1/4 c boiling water
1) Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. Stir in water until it forms into a ball.
2) Let rise for at least one hour. Can go for two.
3) Punch down. Shape into ball. Transfer to buttered Pyrex 1 or 1.5 l/qt bowl.
4) Let rise for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 425
5) Bake for 15 min. Turn oven down to 375 and bake for 15-17 min more. (I have forgotten to turn down oven and it was fine.)
6) Let cool in bowl for 10 min (boo!). and then eat.
Goes very nicely with all sorts of stuff. It isn’t quite sandwich bread, but you can make a sandwich out of it. Great with soup, salad, etc.
Here is a link to the original recipe, which oddly makes two loafs. There are also several variations, including one for thyme dinner rolls made in a muffin pan, which I have been told are great.
My Mother’s Peasant Bread
Aleta
@JCNZ: perfect for right now. thanks.
trollhattan
Sacramento County has at last achieved the dream of being part of the Bay Area, in that we’re following their “Everybody to get from street” lead. Hunker and bunker.
And the governor told us to expect no more school. At all. Before summer. Which has been my fear but I didn’t want to say it out loud. Instead of graduation, an early Festivus.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Sure, why not:
dmsilev
@WaterGirl: I try. Here’s another favorite recipe. This one is from “The Essence of Chocolate”, a cookbook from the Scharffenberger company. In essence, you make a pie/tart crust and then fill it with an orange-infused chocolate ganache. It’s an easy but oh oh so good recipe.
Gemina13
I made teriyaki steak with garlic-scallion rice noodles last night, but didn’t take note of the proportions. Tonight, I’m doing pork chops in seasoned mustard (using Penzey’s Pot Roast seasoning, McCormick’s Chipotle & Roasted Garlic seasoning, 3 Tbsp horseradish mustard, and 1/4 cup of mirin) and Idaho instant mashed potatoes. I’ve got a 3-lb sirloin roast thawing in the fridge, and will marinate it tomorrow to turn into Belgian beer stew on Thursday. I also made a LOT of bolognese sauce, two containers of zuppa Toscano, and a tub of chicken & noodles. Plus, thanks to the SO’s yearly bonus from last year (50 lbs of wild Alaskan salmon), we’ve got about 15 lbs of fish in the chest freezer.
I’m gonna be busy figuring out how to cook up at least 5 lbs of the salmon in a way that doesn’t involve frying or broiling.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Thank you! For both recipes. These look gorgeous.
The Dangerman
I wish I could cook but I’m truly terrible at it; I’d love to try cooking a steak sous vide because it involves searing the steak with a blow torch at the end (insert Tim Allen grunt here) and I don’t THINK I could screw that up other than the risk of burning the house down (note to self: fire extinguisher!).
So, I’m going to violate the terms of the post (insert Andy Kaufman OOPS here) and post about really good restaurants NOT in any Big City; if they survive (if we survive?), they are going to need some tourist money in a hurry, so if you are headed to one of these neighborhoods, think about stopping in:
(1) Mariposa, CA (near Yosemite): Charles Street Cafe. One of my things a while back was to go to Yosemite, hike and do the picture thing (of course), then go eat at Charles Street Cafe. It’s amazing. These folks get a special mention as they helped convince me to leave the Big City (a much longer story for another time).
(2) Casmalia, CA (near Vandenburg): HItching Post. Easy to find as it’s pretty much the only thing in Casmalia besides a few houses. Not the only restaurant. The only business. Map says there is a Post Office there but I’m not sure. It’s been a while. Maybe it grew up enough for a USPS.
(3) Those are both fairly far off the beaten path (hell, Casmalia is off the path and then some). So, one more, Full Of Life Flatbread Pizza. Los Alamos, on the 101. Used to be called American Flatbread so I hope it’s still the same owners and just new name. Fine, fine food. They are open very restricted hours. Across the street from where Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney did a video for Say Say Say (Neverland is a few miles down the road).
Kim Walker
@Kent:
The Hershey’s Cocoa cake recipe is fabulous and easy! Always works! You can look it up on the google.
zhena gogolia
These food threads are much more enjoyable when you know when you’re next going to be able to buy meat or fresh vegetables.
HinTN
Went with the standard St Patty’s Day boiled dinner. Brined a brisket for a week, cooked the bejabbers out of it yesterday in a long slow crock pot, used the broth for a fresh batch of vegetables today, and sloshed all that hot goodness on the sliced cooked meat. Yummmmmmmmy
ETA: No green beer
Lapassionara
@Fair Economist: I do. A very simple black bean dish. Chop some garlic (1 glove), onion(about 1/4 to 1/3 cup), bell pepper (same). After these have softened, add some petite diced tomatoes, without the juice. But save the juice, because you might want it later.
add a can of black beans, WITH the juice. This is important. Heat. Add some frozen corn (about 1/2 cup). Add some oregano, then som cumin. Probably at least a tsp., maybe more.
if more liquid is needed, add some of the juice from the tomatoes.
This dish takes about 20 minutes to make and is great over rice.
dmsilev
@zhena gogolia: There is that. Today is the day the local supermarkets always send out their weekly “what’s on sale” flyers, and I just threw the current batch into the recycling bin without even looking at it. It does me no good to learn that fresh chicken thighs are on sale when the odds of seeing a package on the shelf are basically zero.
Juju
@Kent: How old is your daughter going to be? I have a chocolate cupcake recipe that started with an old recipe that I have improved over the years. I make a chocolate cream cheese frosting that I use with half of the cupcakes and I make a vanilla cream cheese frosting with the other half, for those people who can’t handle a double chocolate sort of thing. This is good for younger children. When you say buttercream, do you mean American buttercream, which is confectioners sugar based, or French, Swiss or Italian buttercream?
CarolPW
@Aleta: It’s long, but here goes.
Butter 3 9″ cake pans, put parchment circle into the bottom of each pan and butter the top of the parchment. Dust pans with unsweetened cocoa powder.
Preheat oven to 350
Sift together 2 1/4 C cake flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.
Beat 1/2 cup butter until until smooth, slowly beat in 2 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar and beat until fluffy, add 3 eggs one at a time and beat well between each. Blend in 3 1/2 squares (1 oz each) melted unsweetened chocolate. Mix in flour alternately with 1/2 cup buttermilk (I do 3 flour additions with 2 buttermilk additions in between). Stir in (big spoon or silicone spatula) 1 cup boiling water and 2 1/4 tsp vanilla. (it looks like soup at that point and scared the shit out of me the first time I made it but it works).
Pour into pans, bake for 25 – 30 minutes rotating them half way through. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, turn cakes out onto racks and remove parchment. When completely cool, frost with:
15 squares (1 ounce each) melted semisweet chocolate, beat in 1 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 1/2 tsp vinilla and pinch of salt. Beat until creamy.
Mnemosyne
I’m making this corned beef and cabbage recipe in the Instant Pot right now. I’ll let all y’all know how it turns out:
damndelicious.net/2019/03/06/instant-pot-corned-beef-and-cabbage/
I need to get up so I can peel the carrots and wash the potatoes, but the cat decided that she feels snuggly right now so it’s hard for me to get up and do it.
JPL
@JPL: told ya
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
It’s mostly been hit or miss around here — sometimes the meat is gone but there are plenty of veggies, and sometimes the reverse. It seem to be a stocking problem, not a supply problem.
Aleta
@CarolPW: Thanks! My mouth is watering. I only need buttermilk.
gbbalto
@zhena gogolia: I have faith that the locusts will subside one day soon. I hope a couple of days here in MD.
Llelldorin
Giant chili on the stove:
1 bag black beans
1 bag kidney beans
2 onions
2 bell peppers
3 serrano peppers
1 lb ground beef
1 can whole green chilis
2-3 dried Anejo peppers
1 large can whole tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
spices to taste
It’s a pretty typical chili: Blanch beans. Drain. Glaze onions, peppers in olive oil, brown meat, add to beans. Add tomatoes and paste. Add spices. (At least chili powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper; I tend to just go nuts and throw about half of Penzey’s into the pot. If you still have well-functioning taste buds that you haven’t destroyed via coffee and whiskey, go milder here). Cook on low heat until chili tastes enough like chili.
It’ll be much better the second day when you reheat it.
And now you see why I don’t write cookbooks.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
Tarragon? I wish I could get it. I also wish I could get rice, TP, paper towels, beef of any kind, a fresh chicken of any kind, etc. It’s like the zombie apocalypse here in suburban AZ. Unless you have some good canned chicken recipes, I’m SOL.
Sab
@gene108: My old standby in tax season (I tax prep) is coming in useful this year when we are afraid to have me breathe on the food.
Rice cooker glop. 1 and 1/2 cups brown rice. 2 to 3 cups water. 3 sticks chopped celery. 1 chopped onion. Bouillon cube. Some other frozen veggies (I prefer carrots and peas). Toss it all into the rice-cooker and wait for an hour. It’s much better if about half an hour in you throw in a couple of handfuls of grated cheese. Also herbs and spices don’t hurt.
Narya
My oven is dead, so I have to avert my eyes from the cake recipes. I’m a baker and I can’t bake. The oven death is prompting me to finally renovate my kitchen, though obviously that plan is rather uncertain at the moment. I’ve been saving and saving for it…and that is by no means the most important thing right now. The problems of one little kitchen renovation don’t mean a hill of beans in this world.
Elizabelle
This is the easiest recipe in the world; it might be a little mild for you, so spice up the rub if you like. I use 3 whole chicken legs (thigh and leg, attached); pull the skin off to reduce fat, 4 to 6 hours in the slow cooker on “low.” The meat falls off the bones. It is luxurious and moist. Can get about 3-4 meals for less than $3.00 of chicken at Lidl.
Use some freshly ground black pepper too.
From the Fox Valley Foodie (who used chicken thighs): and all of the text following is his:
Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs (Bone In)
Slow cooker chicken thighs is an effortless meal solution resulting in outrageously tender chicken generously seasoned with a simple chicken seasoning rub.
The longer the chicken cooks the more tender it will be. 4 hours is plenty of time to create sufficiently tender chicken, but it can be left in the slow cooker longer if needed.
FelonyGovt
I was able to find a lot of fresh vegetables at the Japanese market, so I made this vegetable soup today. It was good, I might add a few more herbs next time.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
Oddly enough, supply is starting to trickle back in up heah near Bwahstin. I’ve been to StarMarket, Hannaford, Shaws, and Russos*, and other than paper goods, most things are back.
Target inside of 128 is still cleaned out. I will need paper towels and kleenex by the weekend, but may have to trek to Woburn to get them.
* amazing former greengrocer expanded beyond imagining. I avoid them on the weekends, because even now, people will crowd in there.
prostratedragon
@Mnemosyne: Darn cat!
RedDirtGirl
My go-to dish is simply cannellini beans cooked in sautéed shallots with fresh rosemary.
But I have to say, I’m already slipping into old stress-eating patterns. And no more swimming for the foreseeable future. I hope I can nip this on the bud.
Fair Economist
@gene108:
@Avalie:
@Lapassionara:
@Llelldorin: Thanks for the recipes, all! They will be useful.
Sab
@RedDirtGirl: That recipe sounds delicious and easy.
PsiFighter37
So…I ordered food tonight from Carbone (a really good Italian restaurant in NYC that does not ordinarily do delivery). It never showed up – it’s been 4 hours since I placed the order. I do admire that some restaurants are trying to adapt to this new reality, but completely missing orders on Day 1? Forget it. I’m going to support restaurants that know what they are doing when it comes to delivery and not going for the ‘nice’ stuff that are making themselves out to be complete amateurs. If restaurants had any sense, they would’ve stayed shut the rest of this week to figure out how to make a takeout/delivery model work, as opposed to diving right in. Now I have to figure out if Caviar will give me my refund (if they respond).
Jeffro
@Llelldorin: No worries or need to write like it’s for a cookbook – this looks great, and chili is the ultimate ‘forgiving’ dish to make!
That is a pretty awesome amount of peppers, though. Whew!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@HinTN: @Mnemosyne:
I planned well ahead and have all the ingredients for corned beef and cabbage sitting in the fridge – had intended to try an Instant Pot recipe this time.
And now I’m sick – really sick. High fever, chills, aches. Phone appointment with a doctor tomorrow morning. Husband making ramen for dinner tonight. This sucks. At least the corned beef dinner ingredients will keep for a good long time. I need to remember to send the recipe to my husband in case I die before I can make it. No point letting it go to waste.
Jeffro
@PsiFighter37: I had this kind of conversation yesterday with a friend of mine, who opened his first restaurant just this past December up in NoVA…he’s trying to figure out what to do, and I told him “limited menu, no more breakfast – just lunch/dinner only – and takeout/delivery only” (and delivery only within a mile or so).
Also suggested he should include “coupon for free appetizer in May” with every order, or something like that. Maybe even “for every meal you buy in March or April, get 60% off a meal in May”, something like that. Anything to stay afloat until stuff settles down.
We’ll see how it goes. I may go up and help him out for a week, just to provide the free labor and hang out.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Aleta: I keep powdered buttermilk on hand – it works just fine in recipes like this, as well as for pancakes, etc. Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur both sell it and I’ve found it in bulk at schmancy organic-type grocery stores.
Suzanne
This is currently the family’s favorite pasta sauce. It is next-level. Add more garlic, of course. I also cook it about ten minutes longer than it suggests. My favorite pasta noodle for this is fusilli col buco.
RedDirtGirl
@Sab: it really is. Very satisfying. I’ve started mixing in roasted brussel sprouts or broccoli to lighten it up a bit.
Sab
@RedDirtGirl: Wow. That sounds great.
ETA also more food groups.
Mary G
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Yikes. Hope you are well soon and can get tested if you need it and all the NBA players have been checked.
Sab
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Are you breathing okay?
NotMax
@Kent
Only if you really want to get up to your elbows deep into making it, close to Ebinger’s Blackout Cake.
Yutsano
There’s a recipe from the Middle East that I have been working on. I think I got it down here.
Gsrlic-Turmeric Rice
2 tbsp butter
1/4 of a medium sized onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1 cup basmati rice (or any long grain rice)
1 2/3 cup chicken stock or broth
1/2 tsp salt
In a heavy bottomed pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and cook slowly until they just soften. Add garlic and sizzle one minute. Add turmeric and stir one minute. Pour in chicken stock and salt. Give a good stir. Once the pot comes to a simmer, cover tightly and lower the heat to low. Cook 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit with lid on 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and enjoy!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Sab: Yup, no respiratory symptoms so far. I have a long history of pneumonia and mild asthma, so that’s a big relief.
Kent
Thanks guys. for all the chocolate cake recipies. I got lost in the election thread and making dinner but I’m back. I’ll bookmark this page as lots of good cake recipe ideas. The daughter will be 17 but she has the taste preferences of a 12 year old. She likes simple normal stuff and no weird additives like nuts or raisins or other “surprises” So a classic basic chocolate cake is in order.
And we have two round cake pans, not three. As well as plenty of glass baking dishes. But will probably go for the 2 layer round cake.
jonas
@Kevin the Hen: Ah! Speaking of Milk Street! And speaking of steak sauce! MS has what I consider to be the final, ambrosia-of-the-Gods, chimichurri steak sauce — red pepper flakes, dried oregano, and paprika cooked down in some oil and garlic, with a little balsamic added at the end. Quite different from the fresh parsley, vinegar, and herb blend we’re used to, but my god…if you like your grilled steak, this stuff will change your life. Trust me.
Sab
@Yutsano: Thanks. That sounds good. Might have to slink off to grocery to get more rice.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Like garlic? REALLY like garlic? Dip/spread to die for.
Lebanese Toum
Makes approx.. 4 cups of toum
1 1/2 cups large peeled garlic cloves (between 45-50)
1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups good neutral oil, like canola or grapeseed
Juice of 1 extra-large lemon (about 3 Tbsp.)
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
3/4 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper, plus more to taste
Put two-thirds of the garlic cloves in a small saucepan, then add enough canola oil just to cover. Put over high heat just until it starts to bubble, then drop the heat down to low and cook for 15 minutes until the cloves are soft and golden. Pour the oil from the saucepan into a large liquid measuring cup with the rest of the oil (both the olive oil and the neutral oil), and stick in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will help the oil thicken up a bit, which will help you make a smooth emulsion that will resist breaking.
Put the cooked cloves and remaining raw garlic in a food processor with the lemon juice, cold water, salt, and pepper. Pulse into a rough paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally to ensure there are no big chunks. With the processor running, slowly stream in 1/2 cup of oil, then once again scrape the sides and bottom of the food processor to make sure anything that’s solid isn’t sticking. Turn the processor back on, and slowly drizzle in the remaining oil. The toum should be smooth and thick, like a rich mayonnaise.
terben
Has anyone noticed in the Pieter Bruegel painting that the guy in red carrying the food has THREE legs?
jonas
I’ve been cooking recently from Alton Brown’s new (well, new-ish) cookbook Everyday Cook. Several recipes have become standbys:
Some of his stuff is just a little too complicated/time-consuming (like the pancakes from a nitro whip dispenser), and it’s somewhat randomly organized, but almost everything I’ve tried from it is excellent.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Mary G: You know what sucks? My daughter is sick, tested negative for strep, flu A & B, and they refused to test her for corona because she hadn’t “traveled” ignoring the fact that community transmission has been going on for weeks. Then I have a sister who works in healthcare as a phlebotomist in PA who has been sick for weeks. Her manager told her to come in to work although they have no masks or goggles for them (they have enough only for the lab techs, everybody else is screwed). Her employer based website that advises about coronavirus said she should NOT come back in to work. She has no idea what to do. She has no short or long term disability and she’s short on funds with little food and no toilet paper. There’s little I can do because she is so far away. And what pisses me off the most is that my daughter and my sister can’t get tested or helped with coronavirus and a bunch of celebrities can. Welcome to America.
NotMax
@jonas
Classic play on Alton Brown’s penchant for sometimes making the simple unduly complex, the opening steps for how to make bread.
Step 1: Buy a farm
Step 2: Plant wheat.
:)
Juice Box
I cook for the freezer a lot even when there is no threat of the plague. However, in the last few days I’ve been busy. I’ve made and frozen meat”loaf” patties, black bean burgers, chili, ricotta gnocchi (Serious Eats), and baked oatmeal. I’ve already got soup, manicotti, marinara and the like portioned out and stacked in the freezer. With the vegetables, chicken and fish in the freezer and the beans and pasta in the pantry, I think that I can go for a couple of weeks with only a need for stocking milk and my husband’s stupid bananas. I live within walking distance of four grocery stores, so I’m in the habit of vegetable shopping every couple of days, but I could easily stretch that to two weeks. Except for those damn breakfast bananas
l
CaseyL
@Jeffro: I’ve always heard that breakfast is the most profitable meal, because the overhead is relatively inexpensive. Is that not considered true anymore (it might not be, since it seems every other eatery serves breakfast).
Kent
Can’t be because they don’t serve liquor.
I’ve always heard that it is the wine, beer, and liquor that keeps restaurants in the black.
NotMax
@Kent
Mimosas?
laura
@Kim Walker: that cake – right there! There’s no better chocolate cake than the Hershey’s Cocoa Cake.
Do it! The birthday girl will Love It.
debbie
After a third failed trip to the store, I’d be happy just to get a damn package of chicken thighs. /grumble/
Peter
I have a lot of things to recommend, but I’ll keep it short for now and limit it to things I’ve found most useful since pulling up the drawbridge last week.
If you shred cabbage and pickle it, that’s classic Kraut. Add juniper, caraway, or other things you like to make it more interesting. If you have a stray bag of cranberries in the freezer, add them! Combine ginger, garlic, fish sauce, hot pepper, and scallion, and you’re making kimchi. Etc., etc.
Feeding a starter creates a lot of it, so that list there at the end represents a collection of strategies I’ve developed for not wasting any of it.
OK, there’s Quarantine Cooking 101. Let me know if you have any questions. I think I’m going to fire up my neglected blog to document the ongoing processes during this period of mandatory domesticity. And in the meantime, there’s Instagram.
Steeplejack
Steep reporting home safe and sound! My car was still there and the apartment hadn’t burned down or been looted by roving bands of yoots, so I figure I’m in good shape to face the viral apocalypse tomorrow. Will pick up the housecat from Auntie B. in a day or so, after I score a goodly supply of cat food and get settled in.
Speaking of food, I actually got home about 9:30, immediately got in my car and went to the nearby special-needs Safeway to see if I could get a few things just for the next day or so. It’s an old, small store, it’s in a slightly funky neighborhood, and it has inexplicable gaps in what it carries compared with the larger Safeway stores. It’s not an out and out food desert store, but it sometimes makes me think of that.
I was able to get cream for my coffee, milk, a loaf of bread, pastrami, a few Jimmy Dean breakfast bowls, a four-pack of protein drinks, a couple of premade chef salads and a few other odds and ends. Oh, yeah, and the last bottle of Schweppes tonic water. Score! Not a great haul of gourmet stuff, but enough, as I said, to get me through the next day or two while I get the lay of the land after being gone for a week. A lot has changed in that time. And it’s actually enough, when combined with what I already had at home, to get me through until early next week, if the viral apocalypse is really apocalyptic out there.
Some of the aisles were picked clean—what is the goddamn deal with toilet paper and paper towels?!—and others were pretty sparse (hence the premade salads), but a lot of aisles were adequately stocked, if you didn’t insist on getting your favorite brand or could slum it for a while.
I haven’t read the comments in this thread yet, but I have a hypothesis that in crises like this—or earthquakes, hurricanes, power outages or whatever—a lot of people have trouble getting out of “This is what I like to eat” mode and dropping into “This is what I have to eat” mode. Think there’s anything to that? I didn’t explain it very well, or at all, really, but I’m tired.
Feathers
I don’t know if it’s everywhere, but Target’s website shows what is in stock at a given store. Home Depot, too.
Kent
Done. We already have all the ingredients. This is the one?
hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake.html
Mnemosyne
@Kent:
Clearly you’re going to the wrong breakfast places.
JAFD
Dear Ms. Comrade Colette C,
Hope you feel lots better real real soon.
Meself went to Big Chain Drugstore down street, to get bottle of milk. Sign on front door “We don’t have: bottled water, TP, gloves, masks, peroxide, alcohol, hand sanitizer or wipes”. Also only four half-gallons of skim left. (That store changed to another chain last summer, seems now to get milk deliveries every other day. Not good.)
Was feeling feverish, weekend before last, went out and got thermometer. Got home, realized it was 65 F outside, building’s heat was still on, windows still taped shut for winter – over 80 F in my apartment – no wonder.
Anyway, am taking my temp regularly, never gotten over 97.7 yet, was 96.5 yesterday. Looking at Mayo Clinic website, see what that might mean, ont much there… (Anyone saying “You’re a real cool guy” will be pied with extreme prejudice ;-) ) KOW
Hope all of you had a happy St. Patrick’s Day! Stay healthy and happy.
Sab
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Please don’t go away. We need your voice.
My niece in law got corona and also got herself sort of famous by posting on facebook. Local paper reporter turned up on her doorstep so she crawled downstairs and did interview. Then Rush Limbaugh ( may he rot in hell after he dies) called to interview her and challenge her diagnosis. She declined. She survived but still pneumatically challenged. Probably forever.
She wouldn’t even have been treated at all if her cousin wasn’t a nurse who said CDC needs a referral from a medical professional and I am one!
My office has done squat to protect us And I love these people. But also done squat to protect themselves. Laughing at me for the last two months while I run around with alcohol sprays and fight with my husband about working there. He is COPD and at serious risk.
Next paycheck I am gone.
tybee
how did you brown a spatchcocked chicken? in the oven on a cookie sheet? ginormous frying pan on the stove top?
Tom Levenson
@tybee: Just in a big pan. Same one I cooked the whole dish in. It doesn’t brown evenly, and flipping it is awkward (but helps get the legs and thighs done on both sides).
I’m no pro chef (my wife is, or was, but I was at the controls on this one). So it doesn’t look pretty, and someone with more skills could do it better, but if you press down really hard so the breastbone cracks, and you break the thigh joints, the whole thing lays pretty flat.
WaterGirl
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: You could order spices at https://www.penzeys.com