pastameshugana

My family and I lived in India, and our favorite pastime was buying masses of books at the western mall. They were dirt cheap, so we bought literally hundreds. Somehow I got onto a roll reading about food, and Stevens book Turning the Tables ended up in the pile. The bit about learning to dice an onion captured me, and I’ve been here since.

There’s a hotel in San Luis RC, Mexico that features green chile beef tongue stew in their breakfast buffet, and it is probably the only thing worth recommending the hotel for.

Hear, hear!

It's amazing how profoundly nostalgic food can be. And ah @Fat Guy... I discovered eGullet because of "Turning the Tables". I read it while living in India with our three oldest kids. I still remember his posts, and for some reason the one that often comes to mind is when he was exploring 'composed salads' and PJ's response to them.

@Ann_T I am still so envious of your bread, looks amazing. Over in the dinner thread I smoked another pork butt and made my first attempt at rolls tasted so good. I don't normally eat breakfast unless there are compelling leftovers: Heated some of the pulled pork and toasted the roll in the grease, then fried an egg and topped with Tapatio. I had to eat in the kitchen it was so messy, and I would pay money for this sandwich any day.

Lol - yes big buns for the win. The 'pork butt' weighed 9lbs give or take. The other one...less than it did last year!

I smoked another pork butt (why do we call it that?), 24hr marinade and 10hr cook time. Mrs M made the marinade (pineapple juice, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, red chili flake, salt/pepper, mustard & a few others I'm forgetting). The marinade got reduced into the basting liquid for the smoke, and then treated again with the pan drippings from the smoker to make the sauce for the sandwiches. She also made the coleslaw for the topping and some amazing homemade baked beans that I managed to not get a picture of... I baked the rolls/buns - my first attempt at these. I used a recipe for Vienna rolls from Secrets of a Jewish Baker, I love the addition of malt syrup. My only gripe is that my portioning was wonky, so I had big and small rolls, which cooked slightly different. The smaller ones are slightly over, the big ones are just right. Sandwiches turned out great!

Good catch on the protein variation, thank you!

Just curious if anyone has had any experience good or bad with the bulk AP flour you can get at Costco, link here. Just doing enough baking that buying little bags isn’t going to cut it any longer, and this is easily accessible. Primarily baking various breads at this point, working through recipes and practicing.

How do you know Bob? Looks delicious btw.

Certainly a foolish bit of self-deception...

Sounds great!

@shain I love the egg salad. Going to have to try that. Ham and cheddar on my bread (that I am shamelessly inserting into every thread and real life conversation):

Your bread always looks so incredible and tasty. What is this one? The crust looks amazing! I'm a bit of a neophyte, but I baked bread last night over in the dinner thread, and as I don't usually eat much for breakfast, just a slice (or three) toasted in butter this morning...

Mrs Meshugana was making pasta for a friends baby shower, and since I’m trying to practice my baking I made a double batch of Italian loaves for them. My shaping is definitely a bit wonky but this sure tasted great. Nice flaky crust and subtle chew. Tonight’s dinner was most of a loaf scarfed by the whole crew around the cutting board as it was first cut while still warm. Something tells me the leftovers will make an appearance in tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch...

That looks like a fun book! Searching for it took me down a rabbit-hole of 'county fair' recipe books.

Beautiful!

Kerry thank you - some really sound advice over there! Now my next attempt (by wife's request) is going to be a fig/brie roll.

@liamsaunt your ratatouille and pork chops look absolutely incredible! Is that a compound butter? Monday is my 'down' day - I'm a pastor so the weekend is my heaviest work load. The kitchen is a nice retreat for me. While making iced tea this morning I saw we still had some fresh roasted green chillies in the fridge, and decided to take a stab at baking some green chili cheddar bread. The flavor was incredible, great chew and everything. Just some drama with a strange cavity I posted about over here in the baking forum. My wife got inspired by the bread (there's nothing like cutting open a fresh loaf and having the first slice when the kids aren't around!) and decided to make a spanish inspired meat loaf, with a red chili glaze. I smoked it for her for 3 hours with hickory pellets and we had our oldest son and his wife (and baby on the way) over. We feel a duty to nourish our future grandchild!

This morning I saw some fresh roasted green chilies in our refrigerator, and thought I would make some cheddar & green cheese bread. I used a pretty basic recipe for the bread from Secrets of Jewish Baker, essentially the basic milk bread. Added some shredded sharp cheddar to the dough during the mix. Rolled the dough flat and added chopped and (mostly) dried green chillies, more cheddar, and rolled it jelly roll style into my loaf pans. The flavor is great, texture is close. Definitely in the ballpark of what I wanted to achieve (although I'm wishing for more chile flavor next time - I think I'll double the chillies and also add some 'chile water' to the dough). However, as you can see in the picture, I got a big cavity in my rolls. I suspect I just needed to roll tighter, but is there some other issue that would be causing this?

That is a seductive looking and sounding sandwich.

Well I will admit it makes it into a small portion of our dishes, and it seems a little goes a long way, so that’s probably we’re getting so many miles out of ours.

I’ll add a third to tomato paste. In my first training I was taught to start your tomato sauce with paste, slightly browning a teaspoon or so in the oil before everything else goes in. You can’t define what it adds but you can certainly tell when it’s not there. I’ll add curry leaves to the list. Can’t get them fresh here, but dried works. They add a great smoky flavor to lots of meat dishes, especially ground beef for something like tacos. And fish sauce! Smells gross and tastes even grosser to me. But in a meat dish, especially Asian, just adds something special. And a bottle will last you forever!

Tonight I had to skip making the baguettes - but we found some very nice substitute bread for our Banh mi. The pork started as a 12 hour smoke over in this thread. I tossed the second half that wasn't eaten as carnitas with some onion & garlic I had sweated with a dash of 5-spice, added 1/4 cup of butter for texture and fish sauce. My lovely wife pickled the radish and carrot, and we served it with a mayo/sriracha spread and all the fresh veggies. Turned out delightful. My last banh mi was in Ho Chi Minh city in February, and I've been working up a serious craving that this fully satisfied.

Welcome to the family. You'll get lots of help here, and find lots of Mexican food lovers. Like @Kim Shook I'm curious what area either are your from, or what regional cuisine do you cook?