What's for Dinner?

[Sock Puppet]

Made sopes t'other night. I didn't form the masa shells myself, but Mrs. Puppet picked some freshly made ones from Fiesta, so it was only a little cheaty. Standard sope layering is refried beans, beef, shredded cabbage, cotija cheese, and salsita poured on top.

I was going to go the shredded-beef route by boiling flank steak, then reserving the water to make a thin salsita. But when I pulled out the steak she'd picked up, it turned out to be marinated skirt. Ain't no way in hell I'm boiling that, so I grilled it and chopped it into itty-bitty pieces. I made the salsita (a thin, tomato-based sauce, not the dipping kind of salsa) with chicken boullion, which was not optimal, but combined with the grilled, marinated steak bits, the sopes were quite fantastic, thank you very much. I used queso fresco because it was opened and I was lazy, but this was the saltier, yummier kind, so it worked.

[Vivisectus]

I started off with the intention of making a traditional Ghoulash, but then I remembered that what we used to have when I was a kid is something different altogether: more like a curry than a soup, served over rice, and flavoured with cloves in stead of just Paprika, Caraway seeds and peppercorns.

What I am currently letting stew away for a few hours is some cheap-o steweing beef and onions in beef stock, chopped tomato, a few cloves, caraway seeds, peppercorns, a tiny pinch of cinammon, a generous helping of sweet paprika, half a teaspoon of allspice, and a pinch of smoked paprika for added smokeyness.

Later I will add a bayleaf, some sweet peppers, and some cubed potato, and maybe some carrots and parsnips as a sop to the traditional soup.

[Vivisectus]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

My parents are here this week which of course means dinners out because they pay. We went to a fantastic restaurant I'd read about but never tried and it lived up to the hype, from the in-house charcuterie platter to the hanger steak. The charcuterie included my first in person encounter with liverwurst. I'd only read about it in Judy Blume books before. That shit is fucking DELICIOUS. I can't believe you've kept it from me all this time.

What kind was it? Firm, spreadable, with bacon bits in, rough, smooth, what? Here in Northwestern Europe all kinds of Liverwurst and liver pate's are very common, and there are a million kinds.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by lisarea

HAY GAIZ I figured out a dal that all different kinds of fussy eaters all like, and it's p. easy.

And I was up most of the night with my stomach in a turmoil, slept briefly and fitfully, and woke up with big weird red welts on my arms. I haven't felt that terrible since, well, since the last time I made that kind of dal about a week ago.

I have never had a food allergy or intolerance that I know of before. There's nothing in there I haven't eaten before with impunity, so maybe it's some kind of low ginger tolerance or something.

Everyone else was fine, and it happened with different batches, so I don't think it was food poisoning or anything; but then my stupid friend was all like, "Oh, well, you'll have to try it one more time to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence," and I'm like, NEVAR

We had pot roast last night. I make the best pot roast, and I don't even get killed from it!

[BrotherMan]

My longest time best black friend discovered he has a sometimes shrimp allergy. For many, many years he could eat shrimp wherever and whenever he wanted. Then a few years back we had some and a few hours later he was all puffy in the face and everything. He's tried it maybe a couple of times since then and gotten an itchy response. EXCEPT when he was in Hawaii (no, he's not the President) where he says he had all the shrimp he could stuff into his maw with no ill effects. Now whenever he asks if he thinks he can have some shrimp I yell at him a little and that I'm not driving him to the hospital.

All that to say, I don't know and I'm truely sorry for your lot.

[Qingdai]

The oil, pink lentils or some ingredient in the garum masala would be my best guess as to culprits. Most of the other stuff you have pretty often, right?

[lisarea]

I have eaten every ingredient with impunity, but my current guess is I have a ginger sensitivity. Not an allergy, but just a thing where I can't have quite that much. I just used one of the same jugs o' oil I always use, and the lentils and masala are the same I use for other stuff, too. I already did make dal sometimes anyway, and even ate most of it myself because it had things in there that the fussies don't like. The only major addition to the regular dal was the mustard greens, which I put in a bunch of things because mustard is the best greens, plus some adjustments to the spicing.

Which: One thing I left out, because I overdid it, was that I also had cardamom in there. It was a little too much, though, so I figured I'd just leave it out, because I have no intention of putting that in again and it'd be better without it. But then, looking things up, it appears that's related to ginger, so the cardamom plus the ginger was maybe just too much?

Ginger allergy descriptions seem to fit what happened to me, but I'm not thinking it's a full-on allergy, but just a sensitivity.

I am SO SCARED to test it, though, because that really sucked.

You know about this stuff. Should I be afraid to eat ginger? Is it suddenly going to get worse like really fast if I test it?

It actually really does suck a lot, because dal is like a perfect food especially for Matlock, and I finally figured out a kind that he likes, and now I'm scared to eat it.

[Qingdai]

I would be surprised if you were allergic to ginger. Anything is possible, but it's used in Chinese medicine to make other stuff less toxic.
If you love ginger, and who doesn't, you might try the fancy Hawaiian organic ginger. It could be something else, like some nasty ass chemical.
Also, do not despair, there are at least four different kinds of cardamon that I know of, so how related to ginger? I don't know. Pure speculation on my part.

OK, would that be Oral allergy that you were looking at?

I would be truly sorry for your lots.

[lisarea]

O god no. I just searched on that now, and no.

I just narrowed the ingredients down to the only thing that it had in unusual proportions, and found things like this: An Allergy To Ginger | LIVESTRONG.COM

That's the weird thing, is that none of the ingredients are things I don't eat regularly, but maybe something about the quantities or the combinations (OH GOD NO THAT'S LIKE EXPONENTIAL) is making me feel terrible.

I really just want to blow this off and say coincidence, but I am scared to even test it yet. Maybe if I give myself a month or two to forget how much that sucked.

[livius drusus]

Chickpea, romaine and tomato salad. Element of note: homemade roasted garlic ranch dressing. This shit is the bomb yo.

The Bomb Yo Dressing

2 heads garlic
olive oil
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
a dash or two Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
a fistful of chives

Preheat the oven to 400. Remove the papery outer skin of the garlic heads but leave the individual clove jackets. Cut the butt ends off the garlic heads, place them cut side up on enough foil to make a packet then drizzle with olive oil. Spread the oil around to make sure the whole heads are covered. Fold up the packet and pop it in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove and let them sit for a spell to cool down.

Once they're handleable, squeeze out all the garlic innards into a bowl and mash. Add the mayo, buttermilk, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and whisk. I used my handy dandy stick blender to make the magic happen. Chop the chives and fold into the dressing. Eat.

[Vivisectus]

Belgian style mussels, cooked with leek, garlic, white wine and cream and served on a bed of Tagliatelle. Nice and simple: it takes longer to clean the mussels that it takes to cook.

I also discovered that it is very easy to make a nice terrine of pork liver pate! It is like baking, only with meat.

500 gr fresh pork liver
300 gr porkchops, rind off
salt and pepper
generous handful or two of sage
4 sprigs of thyme
12 crushed juniper berries
1 glass of port
Bacon, to line the tin, though next time I won't bother and I will just grease the tin and perhaps put some bacon on top.

Working in batches, whizz the meat into a paste in a food processor. Make sure to add only a little bit of porkchop each time. Add port (or cognac) , finely chopped herbs, and seasoning.

Line your tin with the bacon and add the filling. Cook au bain marie, at low heat, until the centre is piping hot. Once cooked, let it cool. Put a lid on top of your terrine and add some weight: 6 tins seemed to work for me. The point is to compress it as it cools. Finish cooling overnight in the fridge.

Lunchtime the next day, make some nice brown-bread toast, add some rocket and watercress, a slice of your terrine, a small dollop of onion chutney, and a small dollop of blackberry conserve.

[Legs]

sweet n' sour vegetable stir fry with roast port loin

[Qingdai]

Spring vegetables with cous cous and polenta fries.

[lisarea]

Eggplant pizza!

(I know. I only usually have like 15 things in the rotation at a given time, but I like to participate anyway. Plus eggplant pizza is really really good, so I like to show off.)

[Ymir's blood]

Roast beef, rice and black eyed peas.

[lisarea]

I made basically this tonight, except that I have made it a few times and made different adjustments to it, so that now, it's saffron rice, and the chicken is marinated with sumac and thyme, and it has regular lettuce instead of iceberg, and tzatsiki instead of that white sauce, then I put sriracha on it.

So I've made that into a Lebanese(?)-Indian-Persian-Greek-Korean bastard now, and I didn't do it on purpose. I only noticed that afterward.

It's p. good, though!

Also, I can report that my new sporganization is much easier already. I'm still tweaking it, but things are already easier to find.

[Crumb]

What is "regular" lettuce?

[Vivisectus]

Mushroom risotto with pork schnitzel and a rocket, spinach and watercress salad.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Crumb

What is "regular" lettuce?

Oh. I don't know. What I meant was not iceberg lettuce, because I don't like that stuff. I usually get romaine, green leaf, or red leaf, depending on what they have; and I don't remember which I have now.

[Vivisectus]

Am I the only person alive who likes iceberg lettuce? Why do we even still grow the stuff if I am the only consumer alive on the PLANET!

[lisarea]

You know, it's probably perfectly good lettuce in the right context, but it has this indelible association with crappy restaurants where you order a salad and get some iceberg lettuce with carrot shreds and little slices of black olive with goopy ranch dressing.

So it's probably not ACTUALLY disgusting like ranch dressing is.

[Ymir's blood]

My problem with iceberg is that I like it when foods have a taste.

[Qingdai]

For years, we used to refer to iceberg lettuce as "crunch water."

[lisarea]

Crunch water sounds delicious.

[Megatron]

Iceberg lettuce has its uses, I suppose, but really anything you can do with it can be done with spinach or a better lettuce, and Romaine is SO MUCH BETTER, so...