pastameshugana
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Posts posted by pastameshugana
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I'm just curious to see what kinds of creative things people who both a) Celebrate Thanksgiving and, b) Don't want to make a turkey, come up with.
We're in South Africa currently, and while I can find a turkey, it's a bit of a chore. And to be honest, I don't really love turkey all that much. It's just ... ok.
We'll be having an early TG because family will be visiting, so I want to start to get a menu and a plan in place.
There's obvious 'holiday mains' we can sub in, like a roast, a ham, etc.. Curious if anyone has any creative alternative ideas that might not be springing to my mind.
I also wouldn't mind trying something completely different, like co-opting an entire meal - from mains to sides to desserts - from a different holiday or even a different culture to create a truly unique Thanksgiving meal. For us, everything is already upside down, as we celebrate what are traditionally fall & winter holidays in the summer, so changing the menu shouldn't be any more shocking than going for a swim after a Thanksgiving meal.
Anyway, I'm open to creative ideas!
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Ok, here's my question, but it comes from an experience:
A week or so ago, while in an experimental mood, I thought it would be nice to try poaching chicken with milk. We had some thighs that needed to be used up, and I had been browsing some vaguely middle-eastern sounding recipes and thought I would create something. (Actually, I'm a huge fan of Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, but didn't have the ingredients to make one of my favorite recipe's, so I was just making stuff up.)What I think my first mistake was is taking the skin off the thighs. I reasoned that it would get 'squigly' and unappealing while poaching, so I removed it with the idea I would fry it separately and add crunchy bits back. The frying didn't turn out, so I had naked chicken.
I added aromatics, salt & pepper, some seasoning to the milk, and poached low and slow until I got the internal temp where I wanted it. Removed the thighs and covered, then strained the milk and used it to cook the rice I was serving with the chicken.
The results: the rice was really quite amazing. Had a velvety texture close to a risotto, but not quite. The interior of the chicken was also incredible. Really moist and pleasant. However, the outside-most of the chicken dried out pretty badly. I presume this was from off-steaming after I removed it from the poaching liquid. Also, the flavor imparted from the poaching liquid was negligible. I think I would have to both increase the amounts, and also do something like sweat or soften the onion/garlic, and maybe toast the spices before adding the milk to get more of that flavor into it.
So - am I on a fool's errand? Is it worth pursuing the milk-poaching method further, any experience with this? As for the texture of the chicken: Would leaving the skin on have helped avoid the off-steaming and drying of the outermost layer?
Any other words of wisdom to send my way?
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I was craving Mexican, and the family was out again. When I get to cook on my own, it's very cathartic. I work from home, and it's a mostly 24/7 kind of job, so when I can get ahead enough to devote time to cooking it just feels good.
Put on some Stevie Ray Vaughan and went to work!
Had to cut 'tortillas' out of some 'wraps' from the store. Mrs. Meshugana is the tortilla maker in our house. The right size to cut was the lid from our sugar container:
Melted some cheese and fried the shells in the cheese for something a little different:
My wife absolutely loves elote, and we haven't had it in years. Boiled the cobs, stripped them, mixed with butter and a dab of plain yoghurt (in lieu of sour cream), some lime juice (and a wedge), and topped with chili powder and crumbled South African feta. Can't get cotija here, but this worked out well. The sweet corn, plus the sour and chili were perfect:
Mexican rice from a random recipe on the internet. Turned out better than I was hoping, and my wife is a little bitter because she said it's better than hers (I disagree) and she's been doing it for years. The mince was pretty standard seasoning and some onion/garlic:
And for dessert, I modified a fudge brownie box mix with: Dark Lindt chocolate pieces, cinnamon, and chili powder to make 'Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies.' These were wonderful. The spices complimented it perfectly, and the little chunks of dark chocolate were lovely little surprises:
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On 10/12/2024 at 8:35 PM, Shel_B said:
I haven't had these in more than a decade. They were somewhat of a staple in our home when I was a kid. I didn't know they were still in business. They're not as tasty or texturally satisfying as I recall, and they weren't that great when I was 13 years old, either. But there they were, on an end display in the market this morning, and I just had to try 'em. I'm good for another decade ...
When I was a kid, the Entenmann's man came to our church (still does, just retired). There were always plenty of goodies to give out at the end of his route. The donuts weren't very nice, pretty plasticky, but my dad and me *loved* the danish twists and crumb coffee cakes.
A quick glance at the website shows they are now owned by Bimbo, wonder how long that has been the case. But I also haven't seen one in ages, so distribution must be pretty small.
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8 hours ago, Norm Matthews said:
I was reading @pastameshugana chicken pie recipe and thinking how good it sounded. At the same time I was trying to think of a name for it. All I came up with was Chickherd pie or Flockherd pie while imagining an image of someone trying to herd a flock of chickens. Suddenly I remembered some left-over turkey that needed to be used soon and got inspired to try a turkey version- without mashed potatoes though. I made a roux with butter, flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg and oregano , added some evaporated milk and chicken stock. I melted in some guyer cheese. I cooked in melted butter and oil until soft, some onion, celery, carrot, peas & broccoli. I intended to add mushrooms but forgot to put them on my shopping list. The ingredients were added to a bread pan along with some turkey and topped with biscuit dough brushed with butter and baked until the biscuits were browned and the casserole was heated through. I was going to use James Beard's rich biscuit dough but chickened out (pun intended) and used refrigerator biscuits instead.
Norm, this looks (and sounds) great!
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4 hours ago, liuzhou said:
a vegetarian atrocity not fit to grace these forums
Lol
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26 minutes ago, Kerala said:
That looks really great, and I'm tempted to make that myself. But, I'll be the one to say it today, that's no shepherds pie!
Alas, I figured as much. From my googling, it appears that to qualify it must, at bare minimum, be beef or lamb. Is that the main distinction?
Also, is there a 'name' for a dish like this with chicken, or just 'chicken shepherd's pie'?
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Last night, the family was out again, and I saw some potatoes sitting there. My actual inspiration was making 'something with mashed potatoes' and I thought about Shepherd's Pie.
To be fair, I have never eaten Shepherd's Pie (in my memory, at least), or even read a recipe, but I've seen plenty of pictures. I was about to look up a recipe and then thought 'This sounds like the kind of dish someone just made up out of what they had on hand,' and so, with hubris as my guide, decided to just plod ahead.
Boiled potatoes in chicken stock, mashed in the stand mixer with butter, plain yoghurt (easier to find here than sour cream), mustard powder (again, because plain mustard is hard to find here, but I just 'felt' like it needed it), salt & pepper.
Roasted veg (sweet onion, carrot, button mushroom, butternut squash, and a whole clove of garlic which was set aside). Also boiled some fresh peas to add color.
Sautéed chicken breasts with salt, pepper, chili, and a dash of liquid smoke, then chopped.
Made a thick roux with the roasted garlic from earlier, and some of the reserved chicken stock/potato water. Mixed the roux with the roasted veg and chopped chicken and put into the casserole dish, topped with a layer of cheddar cheese and broiled to consolidate, then topped with the potatoes, a light sprinkling of chili powder for color, then roasted, and topped with chives.
I don't know if this even qualifies as a shepherd's pie, but it was far tastier than I was expecting, and the family was extremely happy with it. I am counting down the hours until I can eat it again for lunch!
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Our 3 oldest children are adults (and live back in the US - with all of our grandkids, while we're in South Africa with the two youngest).
My wife and daughter were out Thursday night, and our youngest has been getting interested in cooking so we spent the night cooking, baking, and having a great time together.
First we had to prep dessert. We were making cheesecake and wanted it to be able to cool before dinner time: We can't get graham crackers for crust, so here he's smashing DeVries Ginger Cookies for our cheesecake crust. This is one of the best substitutions ever. Ridiculously good. Only mishap was I guessed on the butter and had too much in the crust. Tried to pre-bake the crust a bit to solidify it, which worked, but the excess butter turned the crust into more of a cookie. Still, crazy good, and I'll do it again for sure.
A typical baked cheesecake recipe, with a blueberry & cinnamon marbling we made from fresh blueberries. Fresh as in 'fresh from the store and not frozen.' He's learning the marbling technique.
We attempted to make some homemade pasta - which I do regularly, and was the thing he really wanted to learn - but for some reason the dough was just ridiculously hard this time around. Who knows. No problem, we made a quick transition to boxed spaghetti.
We had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs, lemons, and some nice chiles, so we decided on the spot for 'chile lemon chicken cream pasta' and went at it. Sautéed the chicken with diced chiles and onion and set aside. Built the sauce up with red and yellow bell peppers (yellow diced, red sliced big for color), lemon juice, fresh garlic, and right at the end a whack of cream to bring it all together. Garnished with sautéed lemon slices and basil. It turned out much better than it should have, definitely greater than the sum of the parts.
For a side, tried a stab at a potato I've been seeing pop up on YouTube shorts. Boiled, then sliced almost all the way through (using chop sticks to keep the knife from reaching the bottom). Then roast while periodically basting with garlic butter (with some 'Italian Herb' mix tossed in as well) until crispy. These were delightful. Will definitely make again.
Cheesecake out of the oven:
And a slice:
We had a great time cooking together, and the we had enough leftovers for the next day.
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Probably not the best reference point, but surely my grandmother isn't the only one who left soups on the stove (covered) over night if they weren't finished?
She would just re-boil them the next day before feeding us. Maybe my imagination, but it seems like it was always better the next day!
In fact, there is a pot of soup on MY stove right now from last night. Come lunch time, I'll get it up to a boil and enjoy away!
And the added benefit, if something does go wrong and I get a runny tummy, then I get a delicious lunch AND a free weight loss program... (mostly kidding)
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8 hours ago, Paul Bacino said:
carnalized balsamic shallots
Scandalous!
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On 4/17/2020 at 4:12 PM, gfweb said:
Try this
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/13-1980-julia-child-cooks-omelet-46889625
Watching this I can see I'm not exactly using her method. No jerking, but stirring and then a quick roll into a tube. Takes about 45sec
My omelette is more like the 2nd one in Pepin's video
Love Jacques, but the fork on the non-stick is hurting my head. I thought that was the number one rule about non-stick, or am I mis-remembering?
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On 7/16/2024 at 9:15 AM, liuzhou said:
Real aged Spanish Manchego and real Scottish oatcakes.
How difficult is it for you to source 'western' imports, food-wise? Are there certain things or regions that are easier to find foodstuffs from, or is it just hit and miss?
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On 6/24/2024 at 7:56 PM, liamsaunt said:
Nephew cooked again last night since I am battling a summer cold. He made bunny chow in two versions, one with beef and the other with roasted cauliflower. This is the roasted cauliflower one. He also made chapatis and South African yellow rice. He hasn't offered to cook tonight yet, so I think I am back in the kitchen starting today...
The curry looks delicious! Curious what makes it bunny chow?
Here in South Africa the term simply refers to curry that is served in a hollowed out loaf of bread. So you order a 1/4, 1/2 or full bunny, and that is the size of loaf that is hollowed out (with the removed bread included on the side or as a 'topper').
I'm curious if there are other versions of 'bunny' that don't include the bread.
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18 hours ago, gfweb said:
Outback is opening new ones here.
Its a surprisingly-good-for-the-price chain. A reliable place when traveling in the heartland.
The really ironic thing was when we were in Oz a few weeks ago, and our hosts took us to an Outback for one lunch.
I thought it was just one of those 'Merica things, apparently I was wrong.
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1 hour ago, gfweb said:
sandwich assembly is an often overlooked thing
optimal warming...proper stacking so as to avoid slippage...optimal bread thickness
critical stuff
Douglas Adams dedicated a not-insignificant amount of space to the subject in the HGTTG.
And of course, the sandwich shop in question was called the Psychedelicatessen...
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13 hours ago, Ann_T said:
Pizza for breakfast.
Baked in the OONI.
I know I'm only looking through a tiny lens on the internet, but by my book, you and Moe are truly living the dream. So many of us are stuck in these boxes of 'that's not breakfast food,' and thus we don't eat what we really want, and you two are eating what you want, when you want it. And to top it all off, everything you make looks absolutely fantastic.
Yes, I'm a little bit jealous.
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1 hour ago, OlyveOyl said:
Dessert was a slice of apricot pistachio frangipane tart.
Sounds (and looks) amazing. Do you happen to have a picture of a slice to see the inside?
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On 6/2/2024 at 4:20 PM, KennethT said:
A question about sanitation - I'm sure I've asked this before, but a long time ago. From what I understand, tap water in your area (or most of Asia in general) isn't potable. How do most people wash things meant to be eaten raw (although I understand that most people don't eat raw veggies there)? Do you use boiled then cooled water or bottled water? Or do you use normal tap thinking that the amount of water that clings to the vegetable to be negligible and thus safe to eat?
When we lived in India, the water in our area was quite bad. It wasn't even piped, but trucked through the city and pumped into plastic tanks on the roof of the building, that were never cleaned, etc etc.. Brown water was not uncommon. Getting ill from the water was also not uncommon for tourists.
We had three small children with us, and as you do, you always remind them to wash their hands before they eat. I commented often that it's kind of ironic telling them that to be healthy, they need to wash their hands - with water that will make them sick. And this was enough years ago that hand sanitizer wasn't sitting on every table and in every purse.
For us, we used a RO filtration system that filled a small tank, and would use that for all cooking needs. Veggies would get rinsed first in 'regular' water to get dirt and bugs off, then rinsed in RO water to get the regular water off...
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Didn't get a picture, but Mrs. M made us a lovely autumn meal (southern hemisphere):
Perfect fluffy white rice, with the following toppings to add as you wished:
-Sliced cucumbers, carrot matchsticks, soft boiled eggs, spring onions, mushrooms sautéed w/garlic and onion, and a chili-crisp-sesame-soy sauce to top
It was wonderful!
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16 hours ago, Ann_T said:
This looks ridiculously good, and Mrs. M and I decided it will be on the menu soon!
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We stopped at a nice little place called the Red Door Cafe for brunch while taking some friends to the airport, I ordered the 'Dippy Eggs':
Soft eggs, with pieces of Mozzarella, a tangy tomato salsa, chives, bacon, and sourdough soldiers. It was very nice! Of course, presented in the little egg carton was a nice touch.
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2 hours ago, Kerala said:
Nepalese family get together= mo:mo!
During our years in Bangalore, we fell in love with momo's. So many options and variations. One restaurant served only momo, each flavor in a different shape, and a unique sauce.
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On 3/31/2024 at 11:33 AM, Senior Sea Kayaker said:
I am not a fan of cauliflower and really just consider it bland tasteless mush
I am generally of the same opinion, however, I have discovered that in hot-pot, it is one of the finest ingredients. There is a Chinese hot-pot place that we go to regularly, and the Cauli is a must. It absorbs the flavors of the broth incredibly well, and is usually my favorite ingredient to drop in.
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Thanksgiving without turkey...ideas?
in Cooking
Posted
Thank you for all the great ideas to ponder!