MRE

I started noticing this change in texture/quality several months ago. At first I didn't give it a lot of thought, just thinking it was an odd, one off type of thing. The breasts have gotten so large now (10 plus ounces for a boneless/skinless half breast?) that they seem more like small turkeys than chicken. That odd, almost gristly texture in these breasts is very off putting. The only use that I can make of them is to mince them and make something with that. I've tried a number of the premium, organic, free range, blah, blah, blah, (Rocky, Rosie) and they have been just as bad. I'm cooking a lot less chicken now, because I can't depend on it to be good. I'm using a lot more thigh and leg meat when I do cook chicken. At least that still cooks up ok. I wish that I could afford the thirty plus dollar chickens that they sell at the farmer's markets around here, because the Frankenchicken in the stores is not worth buying regardless of how cheaply they sell it for.

I spent about six months in Argentina with an ex (who was Argentine) many years back. Google has it right in this case. Lomo is a cut from the tenderloin. I used to love getting beef tenderloin sandwiches there called lomitos. Lomo de cerdo is pork tenderloin. To add to the confusion, chorizo is not only a sausage, but also a cut of beef (iirc, it's sirloin, but their meat is cut differently than here in the US so it can be a little hard to know for sure).

Brings back some fond memories. I used to love having goat cooked in the same manner.

Cherries also go well with roast pork. I always have a bag of dried tart Montmorency cherries on hand. I cook them up with my morning oatmeal when I'm out of fresh fruit. I've never been a big fan of our California bing cherries for cooking. I love to eat them fresh, and preferably right off of the tree. Our local school district has several trees on every campus. Birds seem to get most of them though before the fruit has a chance to ripen. When the brief cherry season arrives in late spring you can probably get a box that size for around $10-$12 at a farmer's market. Trees will start blooming sometime in February.

I haven't looked for small eggs in the grocery store for years, but they used to sell them. That was the size my mother always bought when I was a kid, back in the 60's. Here's a link to a Wiki that lists weights for eggs. Smalls in the US weigh 42.5 grams (1.5 oz) up to 49.5 grams (1.74 oz). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_egg_sizes

This morning's breakfast. My wife and daughter both crave onigiri frequently, they stop by a nearby Japanese bakery to buy more than they can eat. I figured I could pretty quickly pay for some new kitchen gear by keeping the profit in my pocket and making them at home. These are made with scrambled egg, chive, and some teriyaki glazed salmon that I recently smoked. My wife felt like a school girl heading off to work with her bento of onigiri.

I've been a member for years, follow various threads religiously, and am constantly inspired at what everyone here makes and shares, but I never seem to get around to posting myself. So, maybe it's time to start ... Lunch today was a bit of repurposed leftovers. This is a twice cooked shredded port should that was used in a ramen I made for dinner last night (I posted it in the ramen thread) that is sweet, salty and spicy. The potato salad was made with some leftover boiled potatoes and sauteed spinach mixed with some mayo, red onion, minced sweet gherkins, a bit of dijon, and some rice vinegar. The egg was a discard that cracked while peeling to put it in the shoyu marinade also intended for the ramen. I enjoyed it all cold and didn't want to warm any of it up.

I've been meaning to add to this cook-off since it started. So here goes. A ramen that I made for family dinner last night. Fresh ramen noodles in a pork/chicken/miso broth. Toppings are shoyu eggs, enoki mushrooms, the pink swirly stuff is called komatsuna, green onions, the green veggie is narutomaki, sweet corn, a couple of pieces of toasted seaweed, and shredded twice braised pork in soy, sake, mirin, sesame oil, and chili bean paste. The fresh ramen noodles are an import that I buy at a local Japanese market (Mitsuwa) here in San Jose.

I was in San Francisco's Japantown this weekend to take my daughter and her friend to the J-Pop Festival. As a part of the festival they were featuring a ramen festival as well. They were had four different ramen shops set-up out on the street. Three were from LA, and the fourth was from Japan. Lines were two blocks long, and the wait was anywhere from 2-4 hours. I tried one line but gave it up pretty quickly. Good ramen is not hard to find in San Jose, where I live, so I found good food without the wait at one of Japantown's other restaurants. One of the booths was featuring a ramen burger. I made my way behind the booth to get a good look at what they were doing. Pretty much as some of us speculated, the ramen was fresh, cooked and pressed into a mold, left to set, and then grilled on a flat top as needed. They looked pretty good. Thinking about these this morning made me want to try something different. I had a package of ramen in the fridge, so I made my buns, and decided to fill the bun with tuna salad. It was really good. The crunch and the chew of the ramen bun really went well the tuna. I think that the next thing that I'm going to try is a burger made from my pork and shrimp pot stickier filling, glazed with teriyaki sauce, served with arugula and homemade bread & butter pickles. - Mike

I call this my 8379 sauce, because I've made it, so it seems anyway, at least that many times. It's my version of what most Americans would think of as meat sauce. There aren't any measurements, because ... well ... who measures when making this stuff. I go light on the spices, heavy on onion, celery, & garlic. My method is to start cooking the aromatics and spices first in the olive oil, and then start adding in the meat in small meatball sized pinches. Once the meat is browned I season with salt, a little sugar and then add tomato sauce, puree, wine and usually a bit of water. After that I simmer it until ready. Of course it is always better the next day as everyone knows. Ground Sirloin Onion Garlic Green or Red Bell Pepper Celery Ground Celery Seed Chopped Parsley Italian Seasoning (my own blend, 4 parts Basil 2 parts Oregano 1 parts Savory 1 parts Thyme 1 parts Marjoram) Crushed Red Chiles Olive Oil Mushrooms (optional) Salt Pepper Sugar Red Wine Muir Glen, Trader Joe’s (yes TJ's, I really like the taste) or Progresso Tomato Paste Cento, Muir Glen, or Progresso Tomato Puree

I usually use cheap old hot dog or hamburger rolls. If they are bit stale all the better. They break apart into a fine crumb very easily so that my panade is very smooth. Some of the sandwich breads, like those from Orowheat tend to be sort of gummy when I try to use them for crumbs and form dense little balls when mixed with the milk.

Like others have already mentioned, I love to splash in a bottle of Guinness and or/lager into stews, braises or chillies. I also use it when I make corned beed. You could also do what the old chain Lum's used to do, and steam hot dogs in lager.

I grew up in Illinois and Minnesota with these too. My mother always left the bones in because my dad liked them. As a result of those crunchy bones being left in, my brother and I hated them. Today, whenever I buy a whole salmon I look forward to the croquettes that I'll make from the carcass scrapings and other trimmings. Sometimes I bread them in panko and deep fry them, and other times I just flour and pan fry them. I usually serve them with homemade tartar sauce, or with roasted red pepper and garlic aioli. Tuna croquettes are also a favorite of mine. I use canned tuna, and add a little mayo and pepper jack cheese to the mix. I always use panko and deep fry them. I to serve them on a bed of yuppie salad mix with an OJ vinaigrette, Frenched orange slices, and a little jasmine rice. I make a peanut sauce to top them with. They also make for a great burger. Salmon croquettes have definitely been around a long time. Last night I looked up salmon croquettes in "Southern Cooking" by Mrs. S.R. Dull. The original copyright is is 1928, but my addition is from 1941. Here's Mrs. Dull's take on them. Salmon Croquettes Two cups salmon, 1 cup thick white sauce [her recipe for this found elsewhere in the book calls for 1 cup milk, 2-4 tablespoons of butter. and 4-6 tablespoons of flour], few grains cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, grated rind of lemon. Flake salmon, removing any bones, add seasoning, drop on a platter portions large enough for croquette. Set aside to get firm. When ready to fry, crumb, roll in egg, crumb again, fry in deep fat. She offered several different croquette recipes, and a couple paragraphs of general advice on how to make good ones. Her book is a fun read, but would likely be a complete disaster for a novice cook.

I have three staple rices that are always present, and other specialized ones bought for a special need on demand (arborio, valencia, brown, etc.). Staples for much the same flavor/textural reasons others have mentioned: small grain: Tamanishiki (very small grain, makes Cal-Rose look huge, expensive but worth it) medium grain: Jasmine, usually Three Ladies long grain: Basamati, no particular brand I usually buy in 15-25 pound sacks. I live in San Jose, so usually buy these at any of a number of Asian markets in the area.

I recently bought the Natural, and found it bland and nearly tasteless. Admittedly, I'm still a fan of Skippy and have never really liked any of the natural brands that I've tried, but I wanted to give this a try as Costco often surprises. My wife agreed with trashing the open jar and donating the other to the food bank.

We call it Big Daddy sauce around my house. It's a staple for our burgers. I mix mayo, catsup, yellow and dijon mustard, creamed horse radish, sweet pickle relish, and a bit powdered garlic. Never had a complaint.

GlorifiedRice, they did stick together quite nicely. Crisp on the outside, and soft & chewy inside. I didn't use any egg as a binder. I cooked the fresh ramen in salted, boiling water for 3 - 4 minutes, drained, and then immediately pressed into the ramekins (very lightly rubbed with black sesame oil). I let them cool, and then wrapped and left them in the fridge over night. They were pretty nice little hockey pucks when they came out, and were easy to handle and cook. One thing that I noticed though is the noodles didn't soak up any of the chicken juices (like a bread bun would), and so the sandwich can get soggy on the bottom. Wrapping in paper is probably a must. The yellow shade of RB's noodles may be from egg yolks, but often lye water is added to the dough which gives the noodles a yellow color and stretchiness that we want in ramen. I'm fortunate to live in San Jose, and we have numerous large Asian food stores here. The choices in fresh noodles available is considerable. From my experience I don't really find much difference between those that are deeper in color than the lighter ones. Next time I'll get some of the more yellow ones, and give them a go. A friend suggested that I try using rice noodles for a gluten free version. I've got some rice sticks around that I use for pad thai and I'm going to give it a try. I can't imagine why it wouldn't work.

Here's what I put together this morning: Chilled bun ready to griddle. Another look. Fresh off the griddle. Teriyaki glazed chicken, bread & butter pickles, furukaki, lettuce, and scallions on a ramen bun.

My initial attempt didn't yield the tightly bound noodle bun that I hoped for. It was repurposed into breakfast:

I did a little more Googling and found Ramen Burger's FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/RamenBurger Keizo Shiamoto readily divulges his meat and noodle sources. He uses fresh noodles from Sun Noodles, who makes ramen noodles for just about every ramen shop in the US. Here's a link to a Serious Eats story on Sun. The slide show is really informative. I always wanted to know how they got the waves in the ramen noodles and now I do. http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/behind-the-scenes-sun-noodle-ramen-factory-la.html I picked up noodles at Mitsuwa earlier today and have them formed and chilling in the fridge. I'll cook them up sometime this evening. If they work out ok I'll do the complete package tomorrow.

I'm really intrigued with ramen noodle bun (lot's of possibilities). My suspicion though is that their buns aren't made with the dried noodles from packets that my teens seem to thrive on, but with fresh ramen noodles. From the video, and pictures that I viewed, the buns seem to be cooked like the Shanghai style pan fried noodles commonly served in Chinese restaurants. The fresh noodles are briefly cooked in boiling water, drained, rinsed, and tossed with a little oil, (I'll shape and chill them until I'm ready cook). I'll cook them pretty much in the way I'd make hash browns. A little oil on the griddle, don't touch them until they are nice and golden crispy on the bottom, turn them, and brown the other side. I need to stop by my local Mitsuwa and pick up the noodles this afternoon. I'll report back with my results.

Yup - 250 ml. They were $7.50 each at Sur la Table and under $6 at the other place. I don't think Whole Foods in Canada carries it. Although their online list of places that sell it is clearly a bit skint. My bag will contain well padded and ziplocked bottles of all sorts - so indeed hope it makes it home safely. I've had a few leaks in trips past. There was the one of 21 bottles of single malt that leaked on the way back from Scotland - all carry on in those days. We smelled like classy rummies. I picked up a 375 ml bottle of St George's Absinthe and a regular sized bottle of Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao to protect too. That really was expensive. Sur La Table and Ferry Terminal places are going to be like that. In San Jose today at Lion Market, I picked up a 500mL bottle of 40n for $7.49. I think that's going to be similar at any of the Bay Area's asian market chain stores like Ranch 99, Marina Foods, and Lion Market. The Japanese, Mitsuwa is usually higher, but not double like SLT.

Several years back when I was a caterer my partner and I went to one of the large Asian markets in San Jose and bought every brand of soy sauce on the shelf (she was obsessive that way) and did our own taste test with our staff. For us, the favorite was Wan Jan Shan. Easy to find in Asian markets, probably hard to find elsewhere. It also mattered a lot as to whether it was the imported variety, or their domestic product. The import was vastly better than what they made here in the US. The flavor is lighter than say the run of the mill Kikoman, and to my taste has more complexity. It's naturally brewed, and has no preservatives. The label says that 1 tbsn has 660 mgs of salt. I pay about $6 for a 54 oz bottle. I do use the Pearl River dark soy when I need dark soy in a recipe.

Lay's has introduced BLT flavored chips in our and my wife and I are both hooked.

Lots of tomatoes coming in. I tried a new varietal "4th of July" that was true to its name, as I was able to pick the first fruit on the 4th. They're about an inch to inch and a half in diameter, very red, sweet, and flavorful. I like them much better than "Early Girls". Also have some yellow cherry tomatoes coming in great quantities. Everything else (I planted 9 varieties) are just started to show color with only a couple "Better Boys" fully ripened. It's going to be a great August and September. I'm usually able to pick fruit into December. I planted 3 Japanese varietals of eggplant and all are producing nicely. Both my gold and dark green zuchinnis are abundant, and my English cucumbers are starting come in strong too. All of that, along with the tomatoes screams ratatoullie to me, and that's what we had for dinner the other night. My Rainbow Chard made it throught the winter, bolted in the spring, so I cut the plants down, but didn't pull them out. They've been producing a lot of nice, tender second growth shoots that are really flavorful. I'll pull the plants in fall and start new ones for next year. Tried the Japanese green, Mizuna this year, and the plants took off like crazy. I could barely harvest it fast enough. Made a lot of nice slads with it, and my wife who is half Japanese and works for a Japanese company shared the abundance of greens with her delighted coworkers. They benefit a lot from the bounty of our garden every year. We benefit by getting fresh eggs, honey, and fruits from their's. All of my herbs: rosemary, thyme, tarragon, spearmint, garlic chives, chives, marjoram, and shiso do well. The basil for some reason has flopped. Fortunately a friend had a bumper crop and so I was able to make a large batch of pesto. Tried some anise seeds this year for the first time. They're growing, but don't really seem to be thriving. Somewhere amongst the leaves and weeds there are some red onions growing, and also some Yukon Gold potatoes that come back every year since I always miss some when I dig them up.