Om Nom Nom Food

I make boxed mac 'n' cheese with sauteed onions and broccoli, with a bit of ground turkey crumbled in. Usually an extra slice of american cheese too. Not as fancy as Nates but still tasty

 

I have an unnatural affinity for roasted garlic. I love it especially alongside an Italian loaf dipped into olive oil; simple, yet delicious, much like the mac and cheese ideas on display! My sister and I made a freaking fantastic mac and cheese for Thanksgiving. If I find the recipes or any pictures, I'll make sure to post 'em.

In the meantime, here's a picture of the broccoli casserole that I'd made a few days ago when the theme was the American South. Of course, by all means, it isn't healthy, by any means (it takes whopping dollops of butter, cream cheese, and cheddar cheese, as well as panko - I can offer up the recipe for anyone interested via PM; it originally came from the Pioneer Woman, not sure if the recipe is anywhere online as it comes from one of my mom's cookbooks), but darn, was it awesome. Don't know where the obligatory obscure-angled modernist rendition of a capture of this beauty went, but hey, here you go.

Spoiler

 

My family prepares the same dishes you listed. Casseroles n shit is usually a Southerner thing. Also a lot of people from the Midwest eat similar food to people from the South (at least from my region of the midwest)

 

what the fuck
wHAT THE FUCK

Like- together??? I mean, I understand that sweet potato is sweet, but with marshmallow??? (or maybe that's just because I don't like marshmallows, but still)

My Thanksgiving is usually a turkey covered in a metric crap ton of spices (generally a nice mix of desi ones and spices considered traditionally "American/European") with little cut potatoes lining the edges of the pan. The turkey gets put in the oven and then the spice naturally seeps out into the broth (idk if that should say broth, I've been using the Urdu word "Saalan" all my life so I still get confused in my translations for that) and then ends up getting into the potatoes as they bake.

Good shit. (also cream corn)

 

Hate to break up the discussion on Thanksgiving, but tonight I made some enchiladas for lunches for my folks. Sauce is from scratch, made with tomato puree, some cocoa powder (ground from cocoa nibs), cumin, oregano, paprika, chopped serranos, curry leaf (totally not necessary but it's my second favorite herb and it works with this kind of thing), onion, celery, a whole head of garlic, some molasses and sugar to replace brown sugar since we didn't have any, and of course salt and pepper. Inside is chicken, spinach, olives, mushrooms, orange and red bell peppers, and chayote. With plenty of cheese both inside and on top. I used whole wheat tortillas since I've never really used them before and I figured the whole wheat kind would stand up well in enchilladas.

Spoiler

It's all fairly simple to make. I'll just do a "recipe" (I mostly just eyeballed ingredients after looking up recipes, so specific amounts of stuff is hard to say) for the sauce, since enchiladas are basically "spread some sauce in the dish, put the ingredients in tortillas and roll them up in the pan, put more sauce and cheese on top and bake it" so...

Spoiler

• 1 24-28 oz can of tomato puree
• A couple tablespoons of flour
• A couple tablespoons of butter or some vegetable oil (olive, canola, etc.) (I used olive oil)
• A couple teaspoons of cocoa powder
• A couple teaspoons or tablespoons each of paprika, oregano, and cumin, to your taste.
• A couple tablespoons of brown sugar OR about about a tablespoon each of molasses and sugar
• About a tablespoon of fresh chopped peppers
• About half of a good-sized onion
• 1 head of garlic
• A couple stalks of celery
• Salt and pepper to your taste

The first thing you'll do is make a roux. Heat up the oil in a saucepan on medium high heat until it's hot but not smoking, then add the flour and whisk constantly for about a minute. It's a good idea for this to add at least the cocoa powder and paprika here, as it'll lend a better taste to the sauce. Once the roux has thickened, add the tomato sauce, spices, and sugar and mix well. Heat up a skillet, then add some oil, and once it's hot, add the chopped onion, peppers, garlic, and celery, and sweat them, then add them to the sauce. Then add salt and pepper to your own taste.

 

So, I've looked into this; as it turns out, sweet potatoes and marshmallows harks all the way back to colonial times. Macaroni and cheese? The Victorian era, albeit, it has seen a great evolutionary streak into simplicity throughout the years. Both actually started out in New England territory, though I'd say became extremely popular in the South. Pretty interesting stuff.

Anywho, our Thanksgiving over here usually comes complete with oven roasted turkey, gravy, stuffing, brussels sprouts and bacon, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (whole cut or whipped), steamed green beans with pepper flakes and roasted minced garlic, zucchini, macaroni and cheese, corn pudding, sometimes eggplant, sometimes ham, pumpkin pie, sometimes buttermilk chocolate pie, sometimes apple pie.

 

I would say that sweet potatoes or yams with marshmallows is a strangely good recipe, though from an objective lens, that may come across as biased since it's a fairly nondescript American dish to have during the holiday season and my palette may be tainted. As far as aspic goes, not a fan, never was, never will be; it looks disgusting and I'd only try it for the cameras (or for the sake of a someone's feelings; please never let it come to this, oh world). It reminds me of my many Filipino recipes who will often make a food like adobo chicken, and then put it in the fridge overnight to wait for it to get cold and for the sauce to congeal into a jello-like substance that my mom and sister, for instance, call "adobo pudding" before making me throw up eating it. There's a texture thing and a flavor thing there that just does not gel together for me.

This also reminds me that we tend to have a variety of Asian dishes made throughout the holiday season, with Thanksgiving 2015 being one of the few exceptions thus far. I expect that Christmas will rectify this to some extent; we'll likely have pancit bihon, lumpia, and curry chicken at our table. Didn't link to a chicken curry recipe since ours is made by a family friend that's a chef; he mixes the Thai pineapple curry and traditional Indian curry styles to whip something new up. I'll take a picture and send it here next time that I have it at his restaurant, which will actually probably be tomorrow afternoon.

P.S. - When tagging users with a space in their name, wrap the name in quotation marks so it properly tags them and sends them a notification that they've been mentioned. i.e. (@quoteTheKakuzatoquote) @"The Kakuzato"

 

Since we had extra sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream laying around, when we went to the store last weekend, I decided to grab some evaporated milk so I could make a Tres Leches cake.

Spoiler

 

Christmas dinner time! Photo is pretty bad, but hopefully ya'll can look past that.

Spoiler

Starting on the left, we have a clove-studded, spiral-cut ham, for which I made a glaze out of cranberries, juniper berries, serrano peppers, molasses, sugar, and a little extra water. I was going to plate them with a little of the glaze and a couple cranberries on top but my mom got too carried away with cleaning things up behind me and put it all away. On bottom are scalloped potatoes, made with Fontina, Gruyere, Cheddar, and Muenster cheeses, with some heavy cream and butter in the sauce, plus some white pepper, sage, rosemary, and turmeric. On the right is a coleslaw made with green cabbage, radicchio, daikon radish, chayote, and beet (where the color comes from), with a tzatziki-esque dressing with greek yogurt, lemon juice, and dill. And on top are mussels with purple asparagus, prosciutto, leek, assorted mushrooms, and grape tomatoes, cooked in butter and bourbon (I even flambeed it!). The beverage is a homemade eggnog using Alton Brown's recipe.

Everything was planned ahead for with the exception of the mussels dish: My mom and I came up with it while we were in the store shopping for everything else. We saw asparagus, decided we should make a dish with it, and that was the result.

 

I tried to make some curry. The sauce didn't thicken up enough, but it makes a pretty decent stew.

Spoiler

 

I made rice cake and dumpling soup. Tastes alright, but I wish I would have used beef broth instead of anchovy broth.

Spoiler

 

@CodasterTheDisaster - Both of those sound glorious, especially the curry. I'm a tremendous fan of curry.

Speaking of, I mentioned taking a picture of that curry chicken that our family friend makes at his restaurant ages ago and never delivered! Here we are:

Spoiler

Click here for an article that I'd written on the restaurant! 

If you're ever in the Tucson area for some reason, make sure to give Oro Valley's Dragon Village a try if you're having yourself a hankerin' for some solid Asian dishes.

@"The Kakuzato" - As always, a fine craftsman of the food variety. In particular, I'm a fan of the cheesy glory of your scalloped potatoes - serve Papa Jonno some o' those up hot. :5 The coleslaw is intriguing, and really pops out because of the color. At first, I'd almost thought it was an ube-related dish!

 

boolgogi, kimchi, ginger tea, and seasoned soy sauce for dipping.

Spoiler

 

holy fuckin shit you guys this all looks so GOOD im feeling hella inspired







im going to need to take pictures next time I make my pumpkin cake or sukiyaki or whatever else people tend to go nuts for when i make it

 

@Skolli -

Spoiler: What you should do

In the mean time, here's a picture of my grandma's chocolate mousse birthday cake from today:

Spoiler

It's not homemade, but it is from a local bakery that prides itself in homemade tradition called the Village Bakehouse. Unlike Dragon Village, I haven't written up an article on them for the paper yet, but now that you mention it... Anywho, best cakes I've ever had.

 

Since @Skolli PMed a while ago that she got her gift, I figured I'd make what I made for her again, with a recipe slightly different than when I made them for her (though, Skolli, the recipe I sent you is correct, even if I did do one extra, totally optional thing here.), then put it on ZEJ, especially as it's  bit late now to update on the Secret Santa thread. Here are the red bean cookies!

Spoiler

Since I couldn't find any red bean cookie recipes online I liked the look of, I "hijacked" a peanut butter cookie recipe, since I figured red bean paste would be similar enough to peanut butter. Recipe below is mostly just copied from the cookbook.

1/2 Cup Coconut Oil (or whichever fat component you like for baking)
1 Cup Red Bean Paste (when I made it, I used a little less sugar, and put in a few splashes of maple syrup as well. 10/10.)
1/2 Cup (a smidgen less) Brown Sugar
1/2 CUp (a smidgen less) Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1-1/4 Cup Flour
3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon salt.
Sesame seeds (optional)

Cream coconut oil and red bean paste together. Add all sugar and cream well. Add well-beaten egg (Note: I didn't beat the egg before I put it in, and just let my mixer do it, and they acme out fine). Sift flour with baking soda and powder, and salt, then add to creamed mixture. Chill well. Preheat oven to 375 (F, since I'm American). Spread sesame seeds on plate (or similar). Roll dough into small balls and flatten. Dip onto sesame seeds to get a thin layer, and put on a lightly greased baking sheet, sesame seeds facing up. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

When I made Skolli's, the recipe made 25 (gave her 24 since one of the cookies completely crumbled up), this time it made 20. Cookbook says it makes 48. idk. I like big cookies I guess.