What's "Cooking" in Tiki Central?

Vegetable beef soup...

It is time to make your Turkey stock.
Turkey necks, Backs, and onions, celery, carrots, bay leaf, white pepper and black pepper, parsley stems, cook 5 hours add water to keep volume throughout cooking.

OMG skip, that looks so good.

That Vegetable Beef does look good! It must be soup season, my wife had a scratchy throat so she wanted a couple of batches of soup for the next few days. Skip, I followed your directions exactly... "When I make stock I use Swanson's chicken stock as well as water to cover chicken, one bay leaf, parsley stems, carrots, celery, onions, Blk pepper corns, and the chicken bones, whole chick, Neck, or whatever you have. At the end of 5 hours I do add some chicken base and salt to taste."

Except I didn't add the whole chicken, bones, necks, or feet. And I only simmered it for 30 minutes. OK I just used Swanson Chicken Stock :lol: It was OK for a quick week night soup. Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice on the left, Peruvian Chicken Quinoa on the right.

Looks good Mike.

I use Swanson's also, I think it was Gourmet magazine that said it was best long ago.
And I make my stock just like you said at the top.
Chicken soup helps with a cold I think.

You get trace nutrients from making stock that you can't get elsewhere.

Had to eat can soup when I had my knee surgery long ago for ease, who eats that crap!
Man it was the "good" soup too.

Feel sorry for people that can't cook, the stuff pre done in stores or even many of the restaurants is so bad.

Hamburger helper used to be ok, I don't know what they did to it but it's just not as good.

It could be me.

There is lot of second-rate, over-priced food out there. In some restaurants and especially in pre-prepared foods

Whole chicken costs less too, They don't have to pay a guy to cut it up.
And you get all the parts.

Man just dump that whole bird in a pot and that is way better than any pre done stuff.
Cool chicken and take off the bone.

I make my stock and freeze for later use so it is really quick once the stock is done.

Years of restaurant work has made me think ahead and think of three or more meals out of one chicken.
Like chik soup,then chicken salad, and chicken parmesan one bird like $9.00 bucks.

Sooo much cheaper / better.

Made a few tiny versions

Cute Jon!

Tonight I experimented with some tamarind paste. Made a Tamarind Margarita and some tamarind glazed chicken, served with chayote, corn, and poblano peppers.

The tamarind is tangy and earthy, it made a good glaze. Here was my recipe (I don't usually measure but wanted to be able to make it again - I still have more tamarind paste :lol: )
3 T tamarind paste
3 T chipotle sauce
3 T honey
1 t minced garlic
1/4 t salt
1 c chicken broth

Simmer and reduce to about 2/3. I grilled chicken breast and put the glaze on the last 5 minutes

Oooh, thank you Mike for the recipe, I got to get some tamarind paste.

Got this fish from a friend who's husband caught it in the ocean, they had no name for it, hehe

Looks awesome Hiltiki....happy Thanksgiving to all.

That's a good looking "Fish With No Name" Hilda. I made more of the Tamarind sauce to put on my turkey. I think that makes it Aztec or Mayan Turkey. They had chiles, tamarind, and domesticated turkeys.

Hope you didn't eat TOO much OGR? :lol:

How much is too much? :)
We had nice Thanksgiving w/ my Wife and Daughter. Plume de Veau Veal Parmesan....Field greens Salad....Very! Garlic bread made w/ crusty demi baguettes...various Cheeses and Summer sausage to start. Special because we always have something unique for Thanksgiving because none of us care for Turkey.

Interesting menu choices. I'm not a big turkey fan either but have to do it traditional at least once a year. The last of it goes in the soup pot tonight :D

There must be a thousand pasta shapes! I ran into some Coriandoli which I hadn't seen before so I made it into a pasta salad with mozzarella cheese, banana peppers, turkey breast, green and black olives, bell peppers, artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, and Italian salad dressing.

The Thanksgiving ham bone came out of the freezer today and into the soup pot - 16 Bean Soup

Love that Italian pasta and your ham bone soup, although I dont think I have ever made that, it sure sounds good.

Mike
Always a crowd pleaser

Pan-South American tonight. Peruvian Pork & Quinoa Soup and Brazilian Pão de Queijo

looks good Mike, But when you post things like Pão de Queijo? a link to what the heck that is may save us the time of looking it up :)

Did you use tapioca flour? and what cheese did you end up using.

The Pão de Queijo sounds good, like the cheesy rolls at Red Lobster.
They do have a Red lobster cheesy roll mix in the store.

oddly enough a guy I went to high school with and his wife are opening a Brazilian restaurant and said it would serve "Brazilian food" and we were like "What is Brazilian food"
Pão de Queijo Brazilian cheesy rolls......
http://www.oliviascuisine.com/authentic-brazilian-cheese-bread/

You're right Skip, I could have added a link. I did use tapioca starch (aka Cassava, Yuca, Medioc or Mandioca) but it was in a mix I bought from Amazon. The mix has some cheese solids in it but calls for more cheese, I used Parmesan cheese because I was trying to get rid of it and it worked out well. They are very light, not quite as light as an unfilled cream puff

I do find myself looking up a lot of the things you post as they are new to me.
Always like learning new food things.

We cook more home cooked (American home) or diner type foods.
Many of the more exotic ethnic foods at times have ing we don't care for like curry
or juniper berry's ect.

But we went to Mexico and had fries at a McDonald's that were cooked in animal fat and they were the best fries we ever had!
So we love Mexican food and fries.

At times we do like fake American versions of ethnic cooking.

Kinda like tiki, the fake American version of Polynesia / Hawaii.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2017-12-12 06:35 ]

Skip, Concerning the McD's fries...all USA Micky D's used beef tallow for their fries until a wacky 1 person health crusade stopped them in the early 90's. You can still buy beef tallow...here--on Amazon.

I think a lot of the Mexican restaurants in the area still use pork lard for cooking (we are 15 miles from the border) and it has a lot more flavor than the bland vegetable oil. I can see that a steady diet of lard probably wouldn't be so good for you though.

"a steady diet of lard probably wouldn't be so good for you though.'

That may be the reason that Amish lady's tend to be heavy.
This is what makes going to Der Dutchman so great I am not the largest person in the room in fact they make me look small by comparison.

I find beef tallow and pork fat in the stores here, Pork lard is great for pie crusts they say.
Going to make one some day.

On 2017-12-12 06:34, tikiskip wrote:
I do find myself looking up a lot of the things you post as they are new to me...

I consider that a compliment, you seem to have a pretty rounded food knowledge John.

Nothing exotic here - Tuscan Chicken and Balsalmic Snow Peas with Mushrooms and Peppers. No pasta or rice, still trying to avoid the carbs.

Thanks Mike.

I cannot imagine not being able to cook.
The pre made food at the stores is most times ok at best even restaurants don't have food that is that good many times.

We have to eat may as well find out how to make good food we like.

Barney Fyfe put it best....
"I like good food, I'll take good food over bad food any day, Why eat bad food when you can have good food, That's what I always say"

Learned to cook one day when my mom called the restaurant and told me to make the bean soup I had never made bean soup so she told me how over the phone.
So I had no choice.

"I'm not a big turkey fan either"

Blasphemy!

Yay Turkey!

Cranberry jelly mold.
Remember when Jell-O was though of as a salad.
I'm late, this was Thanksgiving.

Looks great Skip. About the Turkey, my family was never wild about it (mostly Mom) so when we moved to VA from ME, we were not around large family group so we had Lobster or Lamb. To add insult to injury, a restaurant I ran in FLA. we breiefly featured Thanksgiving every Sunday on our Brunch and we roasted and pulled 12-15 Turkeys each Sunday. Not a fan at all now.

I'm that way with French fries now because I made so many at my restaurant Jacks.

But dam if you don't have much money Turkey, bean soup, Cabbage are such cheap ways to eat.
You almost never see people you would think to be poor or any people buying those things these days.

Don't think they know how to cook em.

A ten dollar turkey will feed you 6 to 8 meals.

Glad people don't know how to cook em as this may be why the price of these items is so low.

Remember when flank steak was kinda cheap.

Beautiful Thanksgiving dinner Skip! Yes, Jello salad. My grandmother always brough green Jello with cottage cheese and pineapple to every family function, she brought it because "everyone loved it". But no one actually ATE it, we served it onto our plates and spread it around the plate so it looked like we ate it. She felt obligated to make it because everyone liked it, we felt obligated to act like we liked it because she made it. It was a vicious circle :lol:

"Remember when flank steak was kinda cheap."

That's funny as hell, Skip. My Wife and I always say "WTF" when the cooking shows talk about how cheap Flank is. My Wife's Teriyaki Steak recipe is a favorite of everyone who eats it, and is best w/ Flank. I just want to know "where" it's inexpensive.

Flank steak IS cheap. When you compare it to A5 Japanese Wagyu filet mignon :lol:

I am the Pho King! I like to put the ingredients out and let people fill their own bowl like Mongolian BBQ. Pour boiling broth over it, cover with a plate and let it sit about 5-10 minutes and it's perfectly done. I used some leftover diced pork loin, already cooked. Could have used some of that cheap thinly sliced raw flank steak.

"thinly sliced raw flank steak."

I saw an Asian cook cutting meat and he was doing that really thin wide slice that they do so I asked him why they do it that way.

It is done that way because it cooks faster, and it makes it more tender, also more easy to pick up with chopsticks, plus cutting it that way makes the meat look bigger.
You use less meat in a dish because you fluff up the meat by slicing it this way.

Very smart.

This will look a lot like my previous photos (and there was actually no "cooking" involved,) but what the heck:

Chocolate rum balls, Ginger rum balls, Peanut Butter balls, and Chocolate Haupia pie!

But this year there was an improvement. While it was always good, I never thought the pie was coconutty enough. So this year I scrapped the regular recipe and used Nui's haupia recipe instead (doubled, chocolate added to half for the bottom layer.) What a difference! Really good coconut flavor and just plain delicious. Plus, lifting the pie counts as a workout - that is one hefty dessert! Thanks for the recipe, David!

Mele Kalikimaka ia 'oe!

That looks AWESOME!!!!

"Mayan Fudge" All items the Mayans had access to, not saying they would have put them together in fudge :lol: Dark chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, coffee, pumpkin seeds and cayenne pepper (yes, they have a slowly building burn).

Sounds delicious Mike,.

I was pretty tasty Hilda

My Walmart expanded their Indian food selection so I picked up a Jalfrezi curry sauce. Cooked some chicken, carrots, broccoli, and potatoes with it. Pretty good for a quick meal. It was good in the jar but got a little washed out when added to the other ingredients.

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2017-12-27 19:21 ]

Its been a while. a few meals from last week.

Beef patties

Chicken with veggies

Looks delicious Hilda!

I made another dinner with Jalfrez curry sauce - I added a jar of it to lentil soup. Not picture worthy, it made decent lentil soup but nothing spectacular.

On 2017-12-26 11:49, bamalamalu wrote:
This will look a lot like my previous photos (and there was actually no "cooking" involved,) but what the heck:

Chocolate rum balls, Ginger rum balls, Peanut Butter balls, and Chocolate Haupia pie!

But this year there was an improvement. While it was always good, I never thought the pie was coconutty enough. So this year I scrapped the regular recipe and used Nui's haupia recipe instead (doubled, chocolate added to half for the bottom layer.) What a difference! Really good coconut flavor and just plain delicious. Plus, lifting the pie counts as a workout - that is one hefty dessert! Thanks for the recipe, David!

Mele Kalikimaka ia 'oe!

Dunno how this post slipped past me. Looks delicious-save me a chunk.
Hope that you and Ted had a great Christmas. Happy New year!

Moroccan theme tonight. Spiced Honey Tangine Chicken over Apple and Pumpkin Seed Pearl Couscous, Grilled Calabasa with Ras el Hanout spice, Bacon Wrapped Almond Filled dates from my Madool tree (do they eat bacon in Morocco?) Camel Milk Ice Cream with Tamarind Sauce and Pistacio Nuts (OK, I lied. That was frost burned Blue Bunny Vanilla Ice Cream with leftover Panda Express Orange sauce. But the pistacios were real. No I didn't eat it :lol: )

I don't know about Camel Milk but those two brown things look kinda like Camel nutz.

Hil yours looks good and like something we make with good seasoning Italian salad dressing.
You that the same stuff you got up there put it all in a casserole dish and cover with two packets of the dressing mixed up as directed and bake for 1.5 hours.

Very easy and good, even better the next day.

Mike we had a guy from Morocco work at the restaurant as a fill in temp one day and he HATED women telling him what to do, he had NO respect for them.

Well he was at the wrong place with my two sisters and mom there barking at him all day.
He only worked there one day.

I wonder if he is still here in the USA.
Man it would be tough for him to get along with his attitude.

Camel nutz... :lol:

:lol: The chicken part looks good, though!

Happy New Year to you & CeCe too, David! Thanks again for sharing that recipe - that's the only way I'll make that pie again. Huge improvement!

We went to the Wo Fat Restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown glad we did as it is closed now.
But they came around with the dim sum cart and this little old lady who was "not good with English" insisted we take this one item off of the cart I think it was "Mountain oysters" or cow balls.

It was not that good gristly and tough like you would guess them to be, we got the feeling they were in the back laughing at getting us to take them.
The inside of the restaurant was stark and like a cafeteria, not in a good way.
Overall the place was not great but was historic so that made it worthwhile.

I love going to Chinatowns when we travel even though they make it clear most times they don't want us there.

Cool thing about Chinatowns is they never improve, they are mostly the same as they were when built.

I made a wrong turn in Honolulu several years ago and ended near Chinatown. It was not the right place for a white boy after dark :lol:

I bought a portable gas flattop griddle about a year ago and have made some great use of it. Have used it for bacon and pancakes, Benihana styles meals, etc. But it is really good for cooking boneless chicken breasts or thighs. It doesn't drip on the fire and flare up like a grill so the chicken stays juicier and soot-free.

Saturday night was choose-your-own-ingredients Mongolian BBQ for 7 people. Dessert was Tropical Fruit Foster with lots of fresh fruits, butter, brown sugar, and rum over vanilla ice cream with honey sesame stick topping.

Last night was Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwiches

That looks like a nice grill Mike.

We went to China town in New York city and about dusk 12 cop cars came rolling in, we left.
Did not look like a place we should be.

My brother in law who lives in NY would not go to China town with us.
We brought his kids back a duck head and the duck feet as a joke in a bag.

The Peking duck house was great, China town in New York city looked like a set from Starsky and Hutch.
Steam rolling up from the street grates, Narrow streets with fire escapes on buildings.