The food thread

Couscous

So tonight I made couscous. First I put some chicken stock in a pot (store bought stock but decent stuff) with some flavours: sea salt, black peppercorns, bay leaf, fresh coriander, a couple of leftover morels that were drying out, a couple of allspice berries, some pieces of star anise, some slices of ginger, a couple of garlic cloves, a few strands of saffron, a couple blades of mace, a few green cardamom pods, some dried rose buds my daughter bought in a Chinese tea shop in Montreal a couple of years ago (I think when we flew there to see KT Tunstall). Simmered that for something over an hour.

Meanwhile sauteed some sliced onions in quite a bit of olive oil until quit golden brown, added finely diced carrot and celery and minced garlic, some S&P, some diced mushrooms and oil-packed sun dried tomatoes. Finally mixed in couscous, poured in chicken stock, added green onions, stirred, let sit off heat for 10 minutes. Amazing!
 
Pardon me , I haven't checked into this thread in a long time. Has anybody mentioned Brats. I'm talking good old fashioned "beer Brats". That's right , cast iron 15 1/2" grillin' pan , with about 16" ounces of PBR? Yea, I.m talkin' grillin' the beer with chopped onions , chopped or minced garlic and jalapenos ? Put in the brats and add PBR as needed . I'm talkin' on the barbie. And sometimes , all that grillin' makes you thirsty , so you know what to do about that. Any body knows any thing about Brats or I should say more authentic than this , please feel free.
 
Sounds good.

13 seasonings, really? I am on a new kick these days. See how few seasonings you can use and still achieve the desired result.

15 I forgot to mention 2 cloves and a little piece of cinnamon. :)

I take your point, but couscous is bland and makes flavours disappear. I really just reached for things and threw them in the pot. A piece of lemon zest would have been good.
 
Lunch, after Barcelona plant visit:
 

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The other day I made a nice veggie stir-fry dish. Pea pods, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, onions garlic, etc... My big saucepan is teflon, will use it until it degrades. I have burned two teflon pans in the past. Nasty. Will never purchase another. Hopefully I can find a nice deep ~10" cast iron some day.

This morning, some sauteed onions, then poured three eggs over them and mixed them about until done. My ~7" egg pan is cast iron, Lodge. They make them really porous so that the seasoning is easy. The surface on mine started flaking after ~8 years, so I recently stripped it in the self-cleaning electric oven. I roughly ground off the bottom to shiny metal and reseasoned. It now works better than ever and better than my teflon pans. a spritz of oil wets the whole surface rather than beading up like it does on teflon.

My new secret weapon is an infrared thermometer. I heat the pan to ~300F for sunnyside up eggs. Drop in the egg and shut off the burner and cover it. Let it sit for a couple minutes until the yolk area just starts to turn opaque. Set it on a nice piece of buttered toast and wipe up any leftover yolk with another.
 
(Brat means fry. Boiling a sausage, intended for frying. Only in America)

Sorry I don't care what you say, I'm from Milwaukee and pre-cooked brats stewing in beer are OK. I like emulsified meat brats 15% veal 85% pork the spice mix has to be just right mace, etc. served up just like ball park hot dogs. The pre-cook is usually on the grill but sitting in the beer they come off as steamed or boiled.
 
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