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What is/was for dinner?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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That's my go-to (well the "original" flavor of the Sapporo Ichiban ones) when I want something hot and filling right now and should have realized that about an hour beforehand if I were going to cook something from scratch. Anyway I throw some frozen mixed veggies into a little more water than they say for the noodles, cook the veg partway and then the noodles, then the spice packet or some of it anyway, put in some diced tofu and kill the heat, let sit a few minutes off the boiling point, et voila. No culinary awards but it's salvation sometimes.
Oooooo, now that’s how you put a spin on something as simple as Ramen!!
Yeah... I can't just eat ramen... have to have greens or something in it and some protein. But that's fast food for me, how I described it. I usually spend more time than that cooking a regular meal for evening anyway. I'm retired though. When I was working sometimes my body would be lucky if it scored Chinese takeout on the way home, sometimes it was just takeout soup and a sandwich doubled down on at lunch time with the 2nd serving stashed in the employee pantry for later. Ugh...
Yum.
What will you put in it?
I love cassoulet, but usually have it in autumn, or winter.
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The trick with ramen is the stock......that what makes it - and here, a meat stock is much more tasty than a vegetable stock, even if you are going to have a vegetarian noodle dish otherwise.
And yes, some greens such as chard, or spinach, or Chinese cabbage, do make an enormous difference.
The temperature dropped like a set of car keys here overnight, which I don't mind as I need to use up a couple zucchini. So a cassoulet for me as well, and... a sweatshirt while I let the sun heat up the kitchen.
I wasn't thinking this morning when I opened the windows to let the cool air in. Already had my coffee in hand, just shoved the windows open and walked away. When I went back for a second cup a little while ago it was 55 in the kitchen with a stiff breeze from the northwest and this t-shirt ain't cuttin' it, sunshine or no.
I had to put on a jacket - as I have the heating in the house off; t-shirts, or light shirts, don't cut it here, either.
What goes into a zucchini (courgette to us, this Side of the Pond) cassoulet?
I keep it pretty simple - onion, garlic, celery, a couple market-sized (smallish) zucchinis, olive oil for sauté of those things, then some diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, herbs and spices - either bay leaves or some oregano, not both...thyme plus salt and pepper. Sometimes I slice in some good black olives if I have them around. I turn it into a casserole dish after mixing in the tomatoes and beans and letting that come to a simmer... then bake the dish at fairly high heat in the oven 375ºF or so... until it bubbles and starts to brown at edges, maybe half an hour. I toast up some nice artisan bread cut in thick slices in the broiler and rub a little garlic on it after taking it out, then just tear that up it bite sized pieces and serve the cassoulet over it.
Do you or @Zenithal make it with meat or fish instead? If I don't use beans then I use tofu, usually. Somehow for me the zucchini don't seem to want to be with other than just more veggies but I admit that's just a matter of habit.
Meat, yes.
While I'll do goulash as a fish dish, for cassoulet, to my mind, bacon and sausage scream to be used.
The recipe I have used contains nice, fat, flavoursome Toulouse sausages, two legs of duck confit, and diced pancetta - this is a rich enough - rib-sticking - dish. Perfect for a filthy autumn day.
Plenty of onions and around a head of garlic, and a generous amount of tomatoes and cannellini beans. Stock, obviously.
Zucchini somehow manages to catch on fire if you overcook it. Odd.
But, when roasted, zucchini (courgettes) in a roasting dish with aubergines (eggplant), drizzled with olive oil, along with a head of garlic, peppers, tomatoes, and perhaps onions, there is no nicer vegetable dish in summer; it goes with absolutely everything.
You can make almost anything catch fire if you put enough of a match to it lol... I'm lucky I didn't burn down my house once having set lentil and sausage soup to warm up on the stove, cranked it up some out of impatience, as the day and kitchen had turned cool.. and then the phone rang and my going-senile neighbor implored me to just "please Liz stop by for a minute and fix this bleeping TV remote, I hit some key and it's all static now".
When I came back, and thank God I was not gone long, my smoke alarms were ringing and the two cats were upstairs on the windowsill with their little noses pressed against the screens for fresh air from the fortunately open) windows. The pot was beyond salvation for sure and the whole place stunk like charred sausage for weeks, no matter a subsequent cleaning effort from floors to ceilings, door and window trim and the curtains etc. It may not have been my imagination that the on-autopilot standard-white NYC-style paint job I'd applied to the living room walls (closest to the kitchen) seemed to have acquired more than just a touch of ivory. Well, I didn't really live in NYC by then anyway, so... Ivory Lentil, what the heck. A custom shade for my then country-weekend place.
Anyway I credit that experience to not having burned nice saucepots since then. I never even walk out of the kitchen without a glance at the dials on the range. Of course it may not protect my gear from my eventual senility but at least I'll have decent pots to start with when I'm ready for round two of ruining them.
When I burn something now it's usually garlic and I'm standing right there watching it happen
but that's not a catch-fire burn-down-house routine and the sauté pan can shrug it off.Today my candidates for setting afire are a cauliflower, some multicolor mini peppers and nice carrots... all meant to end up in a three-veggie supper via having been blanched briefly before landing on a plate, so the chance of a scorch job seem minimal. The dish will actually be more or like giardiniera that never made it into a storage jar, since I plan to add some sliced green onions and red onion, then just put an oil and vinegar dressing with salad herbs over it. Some crusty bread on the side and some havarti or cheddar if I want it. A just slightly warm vegetable dish for supper, perfect on an evening that promises to be cool again like last night from a little breeze that often stirs before sunset this time of year.
For the fish goulash, I roasted a dish of cherry tomatoes in the oven.
Then, a generous hand with the butter, and some olive oil in a large copper sauté pan; a tin of Ortiz anchovies (chopped, along with their oil) is added to this, and stirred until the anchovies dissolve, giving me a base and a wonderful umami flavour as a base for the dish.
Diced carrot and a diced stick of celery have been added; as have chopped sweet Spanish onions and two ordinary white onions, and two peppers, one red and one green. (All the vegetables are organic).
A head of garlic (new, spring, "wet" garlic) sliced thinly, is set to join the softened vegetables. Then the roasted cherry tomatoes shall be added. Followed by Hungarian paprika (a tablespoon) and smoked, sweet Spanish paprika (a tablespoon). This shall be cooked together for a few minutes, with black pepper, and a little sugar added, and this is what gives flavour and colour to the dish.
That is when I shall add a glass of white wine, - a robust Spanish white, already opened, and the jug of prepared vegetable stock, and the diced potatoes.
Let that cook together for a while. And that is when I shall add the fish, for the final few minutes - today, it happens to be monkfish tails, but it could be any firm white fish.
Just checked on it now - the aroma of the onions, and peppers and anchovies sautéing together is divine; once I add the garlic, I think the neighbours will be salivating.
Then, a generous hand with the butter, and some olive oil in a large copper sauté pan; a tin of Ortiz anchovies (chopped, along with their oil) is added to this, and stirred until the anchovies dissolve, giving me a base and a wonderful umami flavour as a base for the dish.
Diced carrot and a diced stick of celery have been added; as have chopped sweet Spanish onions and two ordinary white onions, and two peppers, one red and one green. (All the vegetables are organic).
A head of garlic (new, spring, "wet" garlic) sliced thinly, is set to join the softened vegetables. Then the roasted cherry tomatoes shall be added. Followed by Hungarian paprika (a tablespoon) and smoked, sweet Spanish paprika (a tablespoon). This shall be cooked together for a few minutes, with black pepper, and a little sugar added, and this is what gives flavour and colour to the dish.
That is when I shall add a glass of white wine, - a robust Spanish white, already opened, and the jug of prepared vegetable stock, and the diced potatoes.
Let that cook together for a while. And that is when I shall add the fish, for the final few minutes - today, it happens to be monkfish tails, but it could be any firm white fish.
Just checked on it now - the aroma of the onions, and peppers and anchovies sautéing together is divine; once I add the garlic, I think the neighbours will be salivating.
Alright: The dish is bubbling away nicely, the appearance (brick red), aroma and taste (I am know to stick spoons into things, just to get a sense of what is happening and what needs to be adjusted or tweaked) are wonderful.
The diced potatoes have been added, and then, when they soften, I shall add the fish.
The diced potatoes have been added, and then, when they soften, I shall add the fish.
Fish added, and cooking away nicely, the mixture simmering, spluttering gently and bubbling slowly with gentle plops. Almost like a cauldron...
Well for tomorrow, the Fourth of July, one can hope something like this will turn up for dessert....
But I got lucky this year and drew the paper slip that said "Lots of rolls for the burgers"...
From the look of the back lawn this afternoon with such a late-running spring, it would appear I could throw in a gigantic salad of dandelion greens without exerting myself very much. Maybe with a few nasturtiums atop them and a vinaigrette dressing offered on the side, they'd be a welcome addition. Too bad the nasturtiums look like they're a week from first bloom. So I'm settling for taking along the requested burger rolls and rafts of cleanup and leftover-packing supplies. Hope everyone celebrating has a wonderful Fourth!
From the look of the back lawn this afternoon with such a late-running spring, it would appear I could throw in a gigantic salad of dandelion greens without exerting myself very much.
Maybe with a few nasturtiums atop them and a vinaigrette dressing offered on the side, they'd be a welcome addition. Too bad the nasturtiums look like they're a week from first bloom. So I'm settling for taking along the requested burger rolls and rafts of cleanup and leftover-packing supplies. Hope everyone celebrating has a wonderful Fourth!I spent 2 hours going through the berries section at various stores this week. Quite sure the workers thought I was mental sniffing and shining the packaging with my phone's flashlight.
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We're experiencing less than 27 degree weather for the next two weeks or so with mild variations. It looks like hell unleashed on Europe this year, though. It's rather nice to wake up to cold mornings in the summer for the first time in years.
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Usually make it Toulouse style. Fall or winter are fantastic seasons to prepare it but with the very mild summer we're currently experiencing, it was a nice rich treat. I usually make extra and vacuum pack anything extra and deep freeze it for a lunch or two for myself within the next 3-4 months.
We're experiencing less than 27 degree weather for the next two weeks or so with mild variations. It looks like hell unleashed on Europe this year, though. It's rather nice to wake up to cold mornings in the summer for the first time in years.
