Cooking thread

I just had luch. I really liked it. The texture outside is odd, but it kind of works. Maybe I should mix some wheat bran in the jocoque mix.

Stay tuned for the recipe as time permits (ie sometime next month).

It took three tires and some web research. I think I should go with my own idea(s) next time a recipe I try doesn't seem fulfilling. I do that when I get ideas of my own (like citrus cabbage or Italian chicken), but I'm slower when it comes to borrowed recipes.

I should look up some kind of day-long cooking lesson while in Vegas...

Two minute dessert:

Take one bottle of 250 gr. liquid yogurt (drinkable yogurt? I've no idea if it's sold outside of mexico), plain, low-fat. Pour half inot a coffee mug, add half a teaspoon of instant coffee and stir. Add one quarter of the remaining yogurt and a second half tsp. of instant cofee and stir again. Add the rest of the yogurt and stir. You can drink it, or eat it with a spoon.

Just something I whipped up at the office, after having failed to attempt my latest yogurt/cottage cheese jell-o for lack of time and energy last weekend.

In my childhood adults owuld warn children against "eating with your eyes." Womehow this meant ordering or serving too much food <shrug>. Last weekend I kind of "cooked with my eyes," in the same inexplicable vein meaning I planned to do too much.

It doesn't sound like much: chop-suey, unfried rice and a Jell-o coffee desert I just dreamed up. I cook that much almost every week, after all. Buuuut, I was coming off a long, long, long week with many long hours. Wednesday I went to bed around 12 am and woke up at 6 on Thursday. Thursday I went to bed at 11 pm and woke up at 4 am on Friday. Friday I went to bed at 12 am and woke up at 6 to be able to finish off some work at the office <sigh>

So by Sunday when I could cook I was too beat to do much. I managed the chop suey and will try the rest if there's time in the week. The dessert in particular, I think I've solved the mystery of combining yogurt, cheese and coffee. I'm anxious to try it.

On other things, I went looking for slow-cookers. I found one at Walmart for 700 pesos, roughly $53 US. It seemed nice, but I want something to compare it to. There are local stores I could look into, but their prices for cookware are generally outrageous.

Australians try pork manchamantel.


For someone besides Nareed, what does "manchamantel" mean literally?

While in Vegas I visited the cookware store at the south Outlet mall three times. I was looking for a slow cooker. I found two at bargain prices, but I wound up getting none. Why? because they're too heavy and I'd have exceeded my very generous luggage allowance on the flight.

I also considered getting a Keurig coffee maker, but decided against it. Like Nespresso it uses cartridges for brewing coffee. Unlike Nespresso, 1) they're cheaper and 2) cookware stores sell reusable cartridges one can fill with any kind of coffee. Well, 1) I've never seen them available in Mexico and 2) one has to wash the reusables after each use. So if I'm going to have to wash the coffee maker, I may as well use the one I already have.

I did buy a silicon spatula/spoon kind of hybrid tool. It should prove very helpful. I also got a ceramic omelet pan. I've seen ceramics here and there at outrageous prices. This one was only $7. I was too tired to cook today, but I'll use it tomorrow for breakfast. We'll see how it goes.

BTW, that store is a little slice of heaven. I'm always tempted to buy utensils I already have or don't need just because it all looks so tempting ;)

I'll wind up buying a slow cooker right here, at double the price. Paying the fee for the extra weight would have run a bit more, alas.

They now have a magnetic induction coffee maker!

Anyone know at what time of year pumpkin blossoms are available? And what fillings usually go into such steamed dumplings.

I tried slow cooking a hunk of meat since I wanted it nice and rare but even though I turned off the 250 degree oven quite promptly it got well done because of the receding heat.

Oh, that ceramic pan is wonderful! I made an omelet just a few minutes ago, stir-frying some onions and chilorio as filling beforehand in the same pan, with only a short spritz of PAM. Nothing stuck to it, NOTHING. I then added the egg, cooked it a bit, added the filling back and still nothing stuck. I even added some salsa on top near the end and that didn't stick, either.

If this holds up over the next few months, I'm getting more pans like that.

I was going to make loose baked pasta (see my blog), so I went to get the ingredients at the store. Alas, the cabbages were huge and the soybean sprouts sold only in rather large bags. So I got some other things to make a side of stir-fry veggies, and then I saw some very nice tangerines (waaaaaaay out of season, too).

Here's what I made:

half a head of red cabbage, shredded or chopped
About 220 gr. soybean sprouts
4 very large mushrooms, chopped
1 green bell pepper
250 gr. snow peas
1/4 onion chopped in big pieces
Minced ginger to taste
3 tsp. dark sesame seeds
1/2 cup freshly squeezed tangerine juice
4 Tbsp. soy sauce (low sodium)
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. Teriyaki sauce
2 tsp. corn starch
Turmeric to taste
Sesame seed oil as needed

In a large pan stir fry the onion and bell pepper for five minutes with some oil. Add the ginger and 2 Tbsp. of sesame seeds half-way through. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan and begin to stir-fry the sprouts and snow peas for about 11 minutes, add 2 Tbsp. of soy sauce halfway through. Add the mushrooms and keep frying for five more minutes. Add the cabbage and keep frying for 15 minutes, sprinkle the turmeric and 2 Tbsp. of sesame seeds about halfway through (yes I was making it up as I wet along).

While all this is going on mix the tangerine juice, 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, 2 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce and 2 tsp. cornstarch and mix well.

When the cabbage is just about done, add the bell pepper, onion and ginger. Stir well, then add the juice mixture and stir to cover everything. Let it all keep cooking for about two-three more minutes stirring all the while and remove from flame.

I'm thinking of calling it Kathy's Tangerine stir-fry


All this while also keeping an ear peeled for the washing machine to finish a load.

Yesterday at Walmart I had a mint mocha coffee (hot) at a local espresso joint. It was an incredibly good combination of coffee, chocolate and mint in milk. Alas, it was laoded with sugar from the Hershey's chocoalte syrup and the mint syrup as well.

I've a home cappuccino machine I use only rarely, but my goal for the weekend is to experiment in making a low-sugar version of mint mocha. I have sugar free powdered chocolate, and I should be able to find essence of mint at the baking section of a gourmet supermarket. We'll see. Oh, i also ahve unsweetened baker's Hershey's Cocoa.

The other day I cooked a thank you dinner for our Catechists and their families. There were more than 60 people there. I made two types of pasta dishes - bolengese and a vodka sauce (there was also salad, bread, and dessert). Anyway it was lots of fun and since I felt I was really pouring myself into the hard work of cooking I really think they saw and felt how sincerely appreciative I was of all they did. Not to mention I probably saved the Church $400 in catering costs.

I had so much fun that I was thinking about maybe learning how to cook for real and taking it up as a hobby. Any suggestions for books or other ideas?