BadRabbit

The North African Style Stewed Chicken sounds delicious but it has greens in it and my wife does not care for them. I know it will change the flavor a bit but I wonder if I could just use tomato paste or something like that to give some more depth of flavor instead of the greens. Any suggestions? http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/north-african-style-stewed-chicken 1 whole small chicken, 2-3 pounds 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, or more as needed 1/2 large red onion 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger 3-4 cloves minced fresh garlic 1-2 wedges, rinsed and minced, preserved lemon 2 inch piece whole Saigon cassia cinnamon 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1 1/2 cups washed and coarsely sliced mustard greens 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock 2 whole green cardamom pods 1-2 teaspoons ras el hanout pinch of saffron threads

All microwaves with undamaged shielding leak zero microwaves so they are all equally safe.

Do you serve a sauce with the fish when you do this?

Speaking of peaches, I like to spray them with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and grill. Delicious.

A friend of the family made a huge batch of Ras El Hanout and gave out jars for Christmas. It really smells wonderful but I'm currently at a loss on what to do with it. I could find very few recipes online (other than recipes for making the actual spice mixture). My first thought it to mix it with yogurt and marinate chicken thighs in it because I really wanted to use it in a preparation of meat rather than just mixing it in with some couscous or something. Does anyone have any recipes or just general applications for this spice blend?

This sounds suspiciously like a thin jonnycake to me. Which, yes, is perfection. Although you use water, like we use for thick ones. I've had johnny cakes before when I was in New England and although the taste is nearly the same, the execution seems to result in a different product texturally. I remember the johnnycakes being fairly uniform in texture while southern fried cornbread usually has a very crunchy and dark brown rim and the innner part of the circle is very moist and soft.

Red onions are the only ones I haven't been having an issue with. I got home with a sack of yellows the other day that only half were usable. I usually squeeze 2-3 through the bag to make sure and must have picked a bad sample set. I've also had more with the green mold growing.

They are generally made from different strains of corn and polenta is generally a little finer grind (though still relatively coarse). Some grits are also made from hominy while I don't think you ever see polenta made from lye soaked kernels. Though yellow grits are widely available now, they are not the norm while most (all?) polenta is yellow. I wanted to know the same thing. Do all grits have to come from "nixtimal" (hominy) to be considered grits, or are hominy grits a variant/variety on grits? Is one or the other considered more common than the other? Is this a regional thing? Really trying to understand this better. Most modern grits are just ground corn with the germ removed. Very few are hominy anymore. Unless you have an artisan mill nearby, it's unlikely you've had hominy grits. Oh and since everyone else mentioned Thomas Keller using their favorite grits... Daniel Boulud uses mine . http://www.oakviewfarms.com/Meet-our-Chefs-C18.aspx

Where do you park it? On a low burner? In a low oven? Or are you not using any heat at all and just relying on the mass of the pot plus the contents to hold heat? Usually the latter. I've found it gives me 15- 20 minutes of leeway (if it's close to full). I'll give it the tiniest bit of flame if it's going to be longer or it's only half full. You can also put a parchment paper lid on the surface of the grits to keep them from forming a skin (you still want to use the actual lid as well to hold in heat).

I use enameled cast iron for grits and polenta and find it will hold for quite a while before it starts to solidify. Risotto is a little more difficult because the danger of overcooking is there. I usually par cook it to within 5 minutes of being done and then finish it off once everything else is headed to the table.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to set an arbitrary threshold. 3 ingredients just happened to be what I observed this weekend. 4 and 5 ingredient recipes certainly fit into the discusssion.

There are some extremely good shelf stable bacons. I know Broadbent is shelf stable and I believe that Benton's is as well.

I think that would only count if one had an excellent bakery nearby where one could acquire the brioche. I made some last weekend and simple is certainly not how I would qualify it.

This weekend I made a couple of my old standbys and realized that the two most popular dishes I made were both essentially 3 ingredients or less (not inculding S&P). Fried cornbread Fine ground corn meal (must be fine or extra fine ground) Water Salt Oil for frying Mix 1 tsp kosher salt per cup of corn meal. Add water until batter is considerably wetter than pancake batter about 125-150% of meal by volume. Note: I've never actually measured the water so this is just a guess. You really just want it wet enough to spread out where there is an edge that is really thin and crispy. Pour into just enough hot oil to cover the bottom of a cast iron pan. Use spatula to spread out so the edges are thinner than the middle (you still want the middle to be about 1/4 in). Fry until golden brown on both sides. Grilled Spring Onions Vidalia Sping Onions Olive Oil S&P Cut root tip off onions. Lightly coat with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss on grill and cook until soft. What are your favorite simple recipes? Edit: Clarifying directions

If I'm not mistaken, DOP requires cooking directly on a stone surface so char would be moot if we're looking for meeting regulations. There are also multiple other requirements outside of our discussion here (e.g. wood fired oven, 900F temp). Then I don't understand why we're having a discussion about whether or not a metal plate can produce Neapolitan pizza... by definition, it can't. I was assuming that an effort was being made to produce an equivalent product though without rigorous adherence to traditional method.

If I'm not mistaken, DOP requires cooking directly on a stone surface so char would be moot if we're looking for meeting regulations. There are also multiple other requirements outside of our discussion here (e.g. wood fired oven, 900F temp). http://www.pizzanapoletana.org/images/file/disciplinare%202008%20UK.pdf

If you don't mind me asking, where are you sourcing these plates from? These prices seem completely off from every quote I've received. A 2'x 1' (3/4 in. aluminum) plate has been over $200 every time.

If I can readjust the aim on this thread for a minute, why is it not possible to can cream based soups at home? What deleterious effects could I expect from pressure cooking for longer periods? Couldn't I probe the soup to make sure proper temps had been met? Also, other than a general statement that Campbell's has been doing this for years, I haven't seen anyone directly address how they are able to produce a product unproducable at home. Do they use higher pressure? Someone mentioned different starches but I don't see anything on the label that would be difficult to procure. Which ingredients would be different?

I have bought Anson Mills and they are delicious but I think Oakview Farms are as good and for some reason seem to cook a bit quicker.

What is different about the process used by Campbells over what one would use at home? It's obvious that it's possible to safely can it though I guess the feasibility of doing it at home is a question.

My idea to reduce instead of leaving out water is so I could properly season. It seems it would be much more difficult to determine seasoning the other way because I don't usually use recipes for soup. I did realize that this would be a pressure cooking situation.

Yes, Kayb. I live in B'ham so that's the Hot & Hot of which I speak. I bought mine at Barnes & Noble. It's a really well done book that's set up in two month chapters so that everything is seasonal. Highly recommend.

They are generally made from different strains of corn and polenta is generally a little finer grind (though still relatively coarse). Some grits are also made from hominy while I don't think you ever see polenta made from lye soaked kernels. Though yellow grits are widely available now, they are not the norm while most (all?) polenta is yellow.

Not that I've seen; this is a smallish town, and I'm trying to think whether there's any speciality shop I've missed; I don't think so. So, I'm going to be making shrimp and quinoa. Shrimp and Quinoa?????? what sacrilege! Perhaps you will discover some new fantastic dish, but I just imagine the nutty taste of quinoa clashing with the shrimp. Grits are bland and generic that's why they are so great as a base especially for butter, salt and cheese. Quinoa has a definite flavor profile. I just don't think you are going to get the same results by using quinoa. but by all means please try it and report back. Agree. I believe I'd try something like pulsing hominy to close to the right consistency before I jumped all the way over to quinoa. Edit: Changed suggestion to hominy.

The "Back of the Can Cuisine" thread got me thinking: Has anyone made their own condensed soups and canned them? Is it just a matter of reducing to that consistency? I just think all the old casseroles might be more delicious if they were made with homemade soups plus it would be nice to make up big batches so that I would have classic homemade soups available at a moments notice.