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Culinary Sandbox

Something's brewing in the kitchen….
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This process is going to take a few days, so don't turn blue on us!
 
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Thanks! I just had "Asian" on my mind when I started pulling stuff out to use on the meat. Chinese mustard? Why not! Lemongrass? Sure! I wonder if I could manage to do so well with the flavors if trying to recreate this - which I will find out because it's good enough to try.
 
I think it looks wonderful! Love the idea of using what's in the house and I also have lots of Asian ingredients on hand. Most last forever.
 
Another post with NO PICS - HA!
 
After moving out of my childhood home I did not cook fish for many years. I'd order it at restaurants, but just wouldn't cook it. Sad fact is that my mom never fixed any kind of fish that I liked. Oh, she cooked shellfish just fine, just not regular fish. She always managed to either roast (bake) or poach fish, but never fried it and never experimented with any other methods. Well, she never really experimented in the kitchen on her own with anything - her definition of experimenting was trying a new recipe, to be followed exactly. At any rate, whether it was because it always ended up overcooked or the type of fish she selected or a combo of the two, I never, ever liked the fish she cooked. 
 
One day I finally decided to give it a go and fried my first catfish and discovered I could fry fish pretty well. I didn't follow a recipe exactly - I looked at boxes of fish fry mix and decided what I wanted to do differently then just gave it a try. Ok, frying fish is good. Eventually I gave blackening a try, and found this was also good. But baked fish? Heh, no thanks! 
 
Until tonight, that is. My son brought home some cod the other day. Cod. Heh. I told him I was going to fry it or he'd have to figure out how to cook it if he didn't want it fried. Clearly that changed with the circumstances, as he didn't want it fried and he wasn't going to cook it. Ok, fine. I'll cook the cod. In the oven. And not like it, but that would be ok because then he could have all of it. What to do? I preheated the oven to 400F then started putting stuff together in a ceramic bowl - butter, lemon juice, cayenne, yellow aji, rosemary, and sea salt. Melted it, brushed both sides of the fish with it, then slapped the fish in the oven for 3 minutes. Brushed both sides again and back in the oven for another 3 min. Repeat, total of 9 min. And I liked it! It was moist and didn't have the strong "meh" factor I usually have with cod that is not fried. Cool. I will definitely cook it this way again. But yeah, I still don't think it was pretty enough for pictures and I didn't even think of posting here until after it was gone, since I was anticipating not liking it.
 
So for those of you wanting pics, so sad, too bad. I'm considering this just a reminder to myself of what ingredients I used, as well as cooking time & temp. Maybe I'll snap a pic next time I make it. Maybe!
 
T-bones on sale so they made it for last night's dinner…… sea salt, cayenne, rosemary and ginger. I'm not sure if I used anything else, but those were on them for sure. 
 
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The pic's a tad dark, but these were boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I kind of had a "what the hey" time with the spices. The marinade was sesame seed oil, apple cider vinegar, fatalii puree, fish sauce, lots o' ginger, marjoram, a touch of cumin, a touch of allspice, a touch of mace, cilantro, and …. poppy seeds! Not a grouping I've ever done before, but it was quite tasty. I'd make them this way again in a heart beat.
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Never seen white meat thighs!!!
 
Haha I'm sure it was the flash. Looks good.
 
Made a redux of the marinade and used it on ahi tuna steaks on the grill tonight. I adjusted some of the proportions a tad, mostly because I kind of overdid the fatalii puree the other night. Oops!  :hell:
 
Just a slight rif on my corned beef topping - old world mustard, brown sugar and, this time, fatalii puree. I'll post a pic when it's done, unless I get sidetracked. I tried the topping before putting it on the corned beef - it's SPICY GOOD!  :hell:  Translation: I'd better give fair warning before I serve it to anyone else. Ha!
 
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Since things have become a tad hectic around here during the week, I'm trying to cook some things in advance over the weekend to minimize the effort later. At the same time, I don't want to spend my whole weekend cooking (nor even a whole day), so I'm keeping things simple. In addition to the corned beef, I've got a nice, big pot of week-night chili on the stove. For us, "week-night chili" always starts with the same base, but then we add things in to make it a bit different each time. Today's has some chipotle chile paste that I got from a Mexican grocer and also cinnamon. You might think that the combo of corned beef and chile cooking at the same time might make for an odd combination of aromas, but all it does is make the house smell good. Like an "I want to eat again, never mind that I just finished breakfast" kind of good. 
 
Wow that is funny, I have been craving corned beef or pastrami all week. I just bought some pastrami and swiss and am thawing out some homemade sauerkraut right now! I bought some chile cheese bread at Bowers that I thought would make an interesting choice. I can't wait to see what you do with this. Will be watching.
 
Do with it? EAT IT, of course!  :lol:
 
I bet that sauerkraut is just to die for! And the chile cheese bread sounds like a good choice - love it long time. 
 
This will definitely be eaten as-is for at least one meal. I may or may not make sandwiches with the other half - this is a 3-pounder, so enough for two meals. Unless we did like the last time, which was to "try" so much of it while we were slicing it up, there was only really enough for one meal after that! But that was a much smaller cut than this one, so we'll see. Here it is, just after coming out of the oven:
 
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Geme - my mother doesn't like fish, so the only kind I had growing up were sticks. I admit, I still like them occasionally with lots of tarter sauce. I rarely think of cooking it but your baking idea sound good and easy. I will try it.

The corned beef looks wonderful!

Jay T - I make homemade sourkraut but have never frozen it. How is the texture when thawed? Not mushy?
 
It is fine frozen and thawed, like anything, it loses a little something, but I actually fry it with butter and onions so you don't know the difference. The bread didn't hold up. I buttered it and put it in a pan after I made the sandwich, and it came apart. No pics of sandwich. Total fail. Well almost, it tastes good.
 
Well, clam spaghetti didn't happen last night after all, but we ate well and had a good time. I brought over the makings of a hot pepper challenge and they ordered pizzas and opened some wine. Yes, that's Pure Evil (original) in the middle there. Some of the other players included CaJohn's Trinidad Scorpion BBQ sauce, CaJohn's fatalii puree, dried limons, dried douglahs, dried yellow congo trinidads, dried something I don't remember (ha!), fresh congo trinidads, fresh aji cristal, fresh ancho mulato, and fresh TAM jalapeno. And yes, antidote in case they started to get overwhelmed. The pizza was from Pizza BOGO, a place lots of people recommend but I had never tried; it was really good! The first bottle of wine was black ink, which was a great pairing with the pizza.
 
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I pretty much doled the chiles out in order of heat, starting with Pure Evil and working down. They both handled a single drop of Pure Evil on a Cheetos pretty well and Michael even then put a drop straight on his tongue. They both loved the BBQ sauce, but gave the fatalii puree mixed reviews. Michael could see cooking with it, but Lisa wasn't so sure. Interestingly, they had stronger reactions to the fresh red congo trinidads than anything else.
 
Here's Michael popping a slice of congo into his mouth:
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Then, WAiT A MINUTE.
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My mouf! My mouf! My mouf is on fire!
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Actually, he handled it better than one might think, even if sticking one's tongue out doesn't help one bit!
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Lisa thinks the congo trinidad isn't too bad at first.
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But quickly changes her mind!
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They enjoyed getting to try some chiles they had never had a chance to try before. I left them with the remaining pods and Pure Evil, with Michael promising to have a "more significant" Pure Evil challenge with some of his friends soon. 
 
And we PROMISE to make clam spaghetti next time!  ;)
 
Ok, some of you will not appreciate this at all. Not a problem; this post is not for you. But some of you will be, like me, thinking "OH YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I LIKE!"
 
This is actually the first time I have made an ahi tuna steak just the way I like them. This time with only sesame oil, sea salt, fatalii, ginger, and a touch of cilantro.
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Sorry it's not on a brightly colored, contrasting plate. That was the least of my concerns at the moment. 
 
geeme said:
Ok, some of you will not appreciate this at all. Not a problem; this post is not for you. But some of you will be, like me, thinking "OH YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I LIKE!"
 
This is actually the first time I have made an ahi tuna steak just the way I like them. This time with only sesame oil, sea salt, fatalii, ginger, and a touch of cilantro.
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Sorry it's not on a brightly colored, contrasting plate. That was the least of my concerns at the moment.
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Oh my. That is beautiful. I appreciate it!
 
Ok, this isn't really an experiment, other than it's trying a boxed mix I haven't tried before - Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Crackle Cookie Mix. So why is it here? Why NOT????  :D
 
Needless to say, I didn't make it exactly as the directions propose. Used olive oil instead of veggie oil (yeah, I know, you have a hard time wrapping your head around that, but trust when I say it's good with chocolate) and used more than the 1/4 cup called for, as the next step is to add more dry ingredients. Ginger powder, cinnamon, and cayenne powder went in - enough to justify that extra oil. (And ok, I can be so predictable in this way - why change something that's so good?)
 
The mix makes a very soft dough. The box includes an envelope of powdered sugar, but you'll likely want to use more than they provide, if you want the pretty crackle effect on all of the cookies. Here is a pan ready for the oven.
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First batch, just out.
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You know you want one.
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As you might suspect, these are rather brownie-like, but less messy to eat and not quite as soft. Still as rich as a brownie. Verdict: I'd make these again when I didn't want to spend the time to make something similar from scratch. They're definitely in the class of dessert cookie. 
 
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