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Chicken tikka masala with rice, curried chickpeas and naan bread...and a gin and tonic.
FOOD THREAD 1
- Thread starter pardus
- Start date
WTF? Are you the Colonial Governor? ...or the Curator at the Wonder house in Lahore, berating small Indo-Caucasian waifs and mussalman shop keepers sons fro playing on Zam-Zammah... until the Red Lama shows up and the adventure begins?
(Literature and Food in one place... who gets the reference?)
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2013
- Messages
- 464
I have a feeling that this chow is the closest anyone can get to the Lahore of Kipling's era.
Ever seen the movie "The Help"... I'm not sure you want ME cooking you anything.
Yeah...and I almost threw up. It was hilarious.
So, as most of you all know, I am in hell and my cooking has suffered from it. Anyhow. Today, I picked up some banging chicken salad from an Italian deli in Philly. Tonight, I made a sammich. Kaiser roll, mayo, roma tomatos (salt and peppered), bacon, avocado and the chicken salad. No pics. It was good however. I am a sucker for chicken salad but Kim made the best.
F.M.
F.M.
Cooking is therapy, well the whole food experience can be therapeutic; from shopping for the right ingredients , all the way to shoving it in your gullet.
Going to the store is kinda difficult for me. Kim and I went a lot / all the time so that is still painful for me. Now, going down the pet isle also hurts.
F.M.
FM, you can make your own and it is easy as hell. We had some left over marinated chicken breasts. I cut it into chunks then added pickled jalapeños. Then threw it into a Cuisinart AWSOME. Experiment you will love it and it is cheaper then buying it
Cool. Thanks. I will try that.
F.M.
F.M.
Indeed...
I made grilled country style pork ribs last night... no leftovers on the ribs, but the boss made a ton of killer smashed red taters that we're having again tonight...
Have you heard of Community Supported Agriculture or CSA? It'll get you better, local food and sometimes delivered. Or give you an excuse to make a trip into the country and get some fresh air.
Here's a few pages I found for your general area.http://www.greenphillyblog.com/gree...delphia-csa-choices-local-sustainable-farmer/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/state/greenbiz.cfm?state=PA&type=csa
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.buylocalpa.org/
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/eat-local-best-csa-programs032210/
TLDR20
Verified SOF
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- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
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Have you heard of Community Supported Agriculture or CSA? It'll get you better, local food and sometimes delivered. Or give you an excuse to make a trip into the country and get some fresh air.
http://www.greenphillyblog.com/gree...delphia-csa-choices-local-sustainable-farmer/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/state/greenbiz.cfm?state=PA&type=csa
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.buylocalpa.org/
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/eat-local-best-csa-programs032210/
We do 2 CSA's per year, and the local farmers market. However I personally don't want to eat "seasonally" so it is still only a supplement.
Also for all the people who eat organic.... Don't, eat local instead.
Have you heard of Community Supported Agriculture or CSA? It'll get you better, local food and sometimes delivered. Or give you an excuse to make a trip into the country and get some fresh air.
http://www.greenphillyblog.com/gree...delphia-csa-choices-local-sustainable-farmer/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/state/greenbiz.cfm?state=PA&type=csa
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.buylocalpa.org/
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/eat-local-best-csa-programs032210/
Thanks brother, for doing that.
F.M.
No problem.
So I got interested enough that I'm using my GI Bill for culinary at the Art Institute. After 4 weeks (total of 8 classes) it's going pretty well. I've found a few areas where there are definitely opportunities to learn. Today we had the lab on soups. (This was my soup, there was also a Manhattan Clam Chowder that we made as a team). We were given some leeway on ingredients, the only requirement/instructions for me were that it had to be a cream based soup.
How about a little bit of cream of asparagus soup with crab and an herbed goat cheese garnish...
The only comments the chef had for me were that it tasted great with a lot of subtle flavors and that I should keep in mind the cost of producing the dish... I had about $5.00 worth of crab in it. By the time you got done, it would have had to be priced at about $15 (per bowl) to break even as a menu item at a restaurant.
How about a little bit of cream of asparagus soup with crab and an herbed goat cheese garnish...
The only comments the chef had for me were that it tasted great with a lot of subtle flavors and that I should keep in mind the cost of producing the dish... I had about $5.00 worth of crab in it. By the time you got done, it would have had to be priced at about $15 (per bowl) to break even as a menu item at a restaurant.
LibraryLady
Verified Military
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- Sep 7, 2006
- Messages
- 5,071
The recipe was for a mass serving (about a gallon of soup) so I'll just give it in parts where ratio matter rather than actual weights. For most of it, I was cooking by taste, color and smell so no real recipe beyond the basic cream soup recipe.
goat cheese (a 1/2" slice for each serving)
basil and parsley chopped, washed and dried, reserve some parsley for garnish
unsalted butter (enough to saute in)
2parts(p) onion chopped 1/4 inch dice
1p parsnip 1/4 inch dice
1p celery 1/4 inch dice
flour, enough to coat the above it's a small amount, for the gallon, it was 1.5 oz
Asparagus (it doesn't take that much, in mine I had about 15 stems for a gallon of soup)
Classic Sachet de epices (1 bay leaf,2 sprigs thyme, 12 peppercorns and 3 parsley stems wrapped in cheesecloth)
3:1 mixture of milk:heavy cream (the actual recipe was either milk or half and half, I chose to use the heavy cream to change the texture)
lump crab
salt to taste
white pepper to taste
in a small bowl, combine the goat cheese and roughly equal amounts of basil and parsley to get a similar look to what's in the pic. scrape the contents of the bowl onto a piece of saran wrap and form into a ball or log, wrap tightly and refrigerate until service. Alternately, they usually sell herbed goat cheese already prepared at the grocery store.
cut the tips from the asparagus and roughly chop the stalks into 1/4 inch pieces (I did not use the purple/white end of the asparagus, just the green parts)
in a preheated heavy bottom sauce pan (big enough to hold everything) melt the butter, it should sizzle when you put it in the pan. Add the parsnip, wait a minute or two, add the celery, wait a minute or two, add the onions, sweat them all until the onions just start to turn translucent, add the asparagus stalks and continue to sweat until the onions are completely translucent, but not carmelized.
stir in the flour to coat everything and cook until the flour changes color to a light brown (technically, it would be a blond roux). Add the milk/cream mixture, bring to a boil over medium heat and reduce to a simmer as soon as the boil starts. Add the sachet to the soup. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes while stirring occasionally. You should see the cream thickening, go at least 3/4 as thick as y0u want the final soup to be. It's OK if it's slightly too thick at this point. It's about to get a LOT thicker.
meanwhile, blanch and shock the asparagus tips (drop them in boiling water until they turn bright green then remove them and place in ice water to stop them from cooking further).
Remove the Sachet from the soup. Add the tips to the soup and puree in a food processor or blender until you get a smooth consistency, the starch from the asparagus will cause it to become really thick. Make sure it is very smooth, the asparagus has "threads" that are pretty nasty if they haven't been completely pureed, Add milk until you get the consistency you want for the final soup while you are pureeing. Clean the sauce pan (just rinse to remove the stuff that was left over) and place the soup back in it. Heat to serving temperature (about 180 degrees).
Get your cheese out of the fridge and cut into 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick slices.
Place a light bed of crab in the base of the bowls you will serve (make sure the bowls are HOT, you should have to use a towel or pot holder to carry them), ladle soup over the crab. place a slice of goat cheese in the center of the bowl and if your soup is thick as mine was, lightly press it into the soup so that only a little shows. A small drizzle of EVOO around the midway point between the goat cheese and the lip looks really nice, but they were out so I used pure olive oil instead which doesn't show up. Sprinkle a small amount of the crab on top and sprinkle parsley for appearance. Serve immediately while piping hot.
All the way through the process you should be tasting and salting/peppering.
The soup had a very complex layering of subtle flavors as it was, I don't think I would have added anything extra because it would be too easy to overwhelm it. If you like spicy heat, you could add some minced jalapeno during the early sautee without messing up the color of the soup. Also, lemon rind will add a subtle aftertaste if you wanted another layer of flavor, but only use a very small amount as it will cause the cream to curdle if you use too much, do NOT use the juice.
goat cheese (a 1/2" slice for each serving)
basil and parsley chopped, washed and dried, reserve some parsley for garnish
unsalted butter (enough to saute in)
2parts(p) onion chopped 1/4 inch dice
1p parsnip 1/4 inch dice
1p celery 1/4 inch dice
flour, enough to coat the above it's a small amount, for the gallon, it was 1.5 oz
Asparagus (it doesn't take that much, in mine I had about 15 stems for a gallon of soup)
Classic Sachet de epices (1 bay leaf,2 sprigs thyme, 12 peppercorns and 3 parsley stems wrapped in cheesecloth)
3:1 mixture of milk:heavy cream (the actual recipe was either milk or half and half, I chose to use the heavy cream to change the texture)
lump crab
salt to taste
white pepper to taste
in a small bowl, combine the goat cheese and roughly equal amounts of basil and parsley to get a similar look to what's in the pic. scrape the contents of the bowl onto a piece of saran wrap and form into a ball or log, wrap tightly and refrigerate until service. Alternately, they usually sell herbed goat cheese already prepared at the grocery store.
cut the tips from the asparagus and roughly chop the stalks into 1/4 inch pieces (I did not use the purple/white end of the asparagus, just the green parts)
in a preheated heavy bottom sauce pan (big enough to hold everything) melt the butter, it should sizzle when you put it in the pan. Add the parsnip, wait a minute or two, add the celery, wait a minute or two, add the onions, sweat them all until the onions just start to turn translucent, add the asparagus stalks and continue to sweat until the onions are completely translucent, but not carmelized.
stir in the flour to coat everything and cook until the flour changes color to a light brown (technically, it would be a blond roux). Add the milk/cream mixture, bring to a boil over medium heat and reduce to a simmer as soon as the boil starts. Add the sachet to the soup. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes while stirring occasionally. You should see the cream thickening, go at least 3/4 as thick as y0u want the final soup to be. It's OK if it's slightly too thick at this point. It's about to get a LOT thicker.
meanwhile, blanch and shock the asparagus tips (drop them in boiling water until they turn bright green then remove them and place in ice water to stop them from cooking further).
Remove the Sachet from the soup. Add the tips to the soup and puree in a food processor or blender until you get a smooth consistency, the starch from the asparagus will cause it to become really thick. Make sure it is very smooth, the asparagus has "threads" that are pretty nasty if they haven't been completely pureed, Add milk until you get the consistency you want for the final soup while you are pureeing. Clean the sauce pan (just rinse to remove the stuff that was left over) and place the soup back in it. Heat to serving temperature (about 180 degrees).
Get your cheese out of the fridge and cut into 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick slices.
Place a light bed of crab in the base of the bowls you will serve (make sure the bowls are HOT, you should have to use a towel or pot holder to carry them), ladle soup over the crab. place a slice of goat cheese in the center of the bowl and if your soup is thick as mine was, lightly press it into the soup so that only a little shows. A small drizzle of EVOO around the midway point between the goat cheese and the lip looks really nice, but they were out so I used pure olive oil instead which doesn't show up. Sprinkle a small amount of the crab on top and sprinkle parsley for appearance. Serve immediately while piping hot.
All the way through the process you should be tasting and salting/peppering.
The soup had a very complex layering of subtle flavors as it was, I don't think I would have added anything extra because it would be too easy to overwhelm it. If you like spicy heat, you could add some minced jalapeno during the early sautee without messing up the color of the soup. Also, lemon rind will add a subtle aftertaste if you wanted another layer of flavor, but only use a very small amount as it will cause the cream to curdle if you use too much, do NOT use the juice.
Last edited:
Chris16
Member
ROMAD meal time
