How do you cook.....?

[Demimonde]

Original gangsta hipster from the Beat days? Hell yeah!

My Texas bias is showing. Around here anyplace that serves anything that could be possibly mistaken for vegetarian chili has to be "hippy". I am pretty sure it is in our Constitution.

[vremya]

I'm going to make blackberry bars (blackberry squares for anyone outside of MN) and I'm using frozen berries instead of fresh.

After making a butter crush, you sprinkle the berries on top and then put a buttery crumbly topping on top of the whole thing and bake.

Do I defrost the berries before I use them?

[livius drusus]

I would, for sure. As it is they're going to be much more liquidy than fresh, so you don't want to have the water in the mix too. In fact, I'd probably cook them down a little with some sugar and a bit of cornstarch to thicken them.

[vremya]

Thanks! I was worried there would be too much liquid if I used the frozen berries right out of the freezer, and I'd end up with a soggy, buttery mess.

[livius drusus]

That's the danger, for sure. I'd aim for a pie filling-like consistency, if I were you. Thaw them, drain them, then throw them in a saucepan with a tablespoon of cornstarch and one of sugar. Stir constantly for 5 minutes or so until thickened. They may come out more of jam bar than the traditional fresh fruit version, but at least you won't have to worry about them falling apart. Structural integrity is a key underpinning of any product in the cookie family.

[lisarea]

K so I have this sort of default farmer's market food we do, where I get salad greens and a big five hundred pound loaf of rustic bread and just eat mostly salads and vegetable sandwiches for a few days.

So I got those things, I got beets, mushrooms, some big fat pink radishes, and a bunch of beefsteak tomatoes of varying ripeness the tomato lady helped me choose so I can eat tomato sandwiches every day for a while.

I'm thinking I will just saute up the mushrooms with a little oil, salt, and pepper (I got the grab bag so I don't have to take responsibility for any choices I make) and also saute the beet greens. Should I do them together, maybe with some garlic and red pepper or something, or should I do them separately? Together or separate, I am just going to make them into a kind of stuff to put on the bread, maybe with cheese or something.

[Janet]

Separate with no garlic is my choice, but I love mushrooms and don't like beet greens or garlic, so I would say that.

[vremya]

I've never had beet greens but I love beets. Are they baby beets?

[lisarea]

Nah, they're adolescent beets at least.

Beet greens are just a sort of bonus vegetable you get when you buy beets. They taste a little like chard, I guess, but the amount that comes attached to a couple bunches of beets isn't really enough to serve as a regular, discrete vegetable, which is why I was thinking maybe put it in with the mushrooms.

I'm probably going to cook stuff up tomorrow because it's supposed to be about ten degrees cooler than it is today, so I will be thinking intensely about how I am going to cook these beet greens and mushrooms for approximately another 24 hours.

[livius drusus]

Beet greens and garlic sauteed in a pan until just wilted. Mushrooms sliced and roasted in the oven until they release all their water. All combined with Swiss in a grilled cheese sammich.

[JoeP]

All I'm hearing is

[lisarea]

NO LIVIUS DRUSUS I AM NOW GOING TO DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU JUST SAID.

Ugh no. Someday. But since you guys are all in love with dirty dishes, I am making them separately.

I would also like to point out that I have literally every kind of cheese in the universe right now except for Swiss. I have cheddar and gorgonzola and goat cheese and parmesan and LIMBURGER and I probably have some moon cheese and Italian maggot cheese, but I do not have any Swiss cheese, and I refuse to buy any just because you said. I might make a toasted beet green, mushroom, and goat cheese sandwich or something in a minute after I have a rack free, while the beets are still roasting.

But NO Swiss cheese, and not grilled! I am not doing everything you guys say I have to!

I just want that noted.

[Qingdai]

I hate swiss cheese. Damn swiss.

[vremya]

Beets with goat cheese sounds really good.

[livius drusus]

Goat cheese is an entirely acceptable direction to take, especially since you're roasting the beets too. Mash it up with some fresh herbs and garlic and spread it on both sides of the bread.

[lisarea]

Yeah, the beets were the main thing I got the goat cheese for.

I'm not mashing them, though, because I never do anything you say. HA HA! I'm just cooking and slicing them and then people can eat them with goat cheese and put them in their salads or whatever.

I do not handle heat well at all, so I try to limit my cooking as much as I can in the summer. I'll pick a relatively cool day to roast vegetables, boil eggs, maybe make a pasta salad or something, then anyone who is hungry has to go in and just put stuff together. Like make a salad or a sandwich or just assemble some stuff on a plate.

I don't even care! Not my problem! I do whatever I want, and I don't do whatever I don't want! Those are the rules!

[JoeP]

[livius drusus]

Of course you're not going to mash the beets. That's obviously not a sandwich preparation. I was talking about the goat cheese, mashing it up with herbs and garlic before spreading it on the bread.

I mean really.

[lisarea]

Oh.

The goat cheese is bucheron, though, not the mashable kind. Is why I thought you meant the beets.

This is like a wacky sitcom where everyone is talking about different things but they don't know it.

[vremya]

I had some chicken tikka masala the other night and it was really yummy, so now I'm jonesing for Indian food. Can anyone recommend a good Indian cookbook - preferably one that explains the differences between the different cuisines of India?

[Janet]

Pretty much anything by Madhur Jaffrey. One of her books was recommended to me by an anthropology professor who did her research in Nepal. I gave it to my best friend and she loves it still after twenty-some years.

[vremya]

I'm trying to eat more fish, and I had some tilapia the other night that wasn't too bad. Anyone have any ideas for cooking tilapia?

[Megatron]

do it like you would do salmon

bake it with butter on top and a lemon slice, and some dill

seriously, tilapia isn't very good but that'll make it at taste a lot better... tilapia is another one of these weird food trends that I wish would go away, honestly

actually you should get salmon and do that and throw the tilapia away

[Megatron]

if you don't like salmon do that with cod or haddock, and/or grill it. grilled cod is amazing

still, if you're just stuck on tilapia, do that first thing, or grill it with lemon juice (squeeze a damn lemon, don't buy shit in a bottle, ever) and black pepper

throw on some red pepper flake if you're hardcore. otherwise you can also jazz it up with some orange zest (use in VERY SMALL quanitites) and celery salt or, and I know this sound weird, but about a drop or three (seriously THREE DROPS MAX) of A1 steak sauce mixed with something really fucking acidic like orange juice, fresh squeezed lemon, or best of all, about a tablespoon of cranberry juice. Like, 3 drops max of A1 in a fucking tablespoon of juice, that's it, spill one spoon over each fillet and spread it around on top while it cooks. If you overdo it, the shit's destroyed.

yeah it sounds weird as fuck but it works

I was stuck with like two pounds of tilapia last year and had to make SOMETHING out of it, and it ended up being really good, so there ya go

Never doing that again, though... it's just a bland boring heavy fish that has no reason to exist as food imo. you want light fish eat whitefish like cod and haddock, you want heavy fish eat salmon or tuna they are both better, as long as you don't buy tuna in cans... omg fuck that shit seriously

[lisarea]

OK, I am looking for a specific kind of marinara, but I don't know if it has a different name. I tried 'gravy' but those are also returning the kind I don't mean here.

It's a slow cooked pureed kind, where the tomatoes are cooked down so they turn all umami and usually get a darker red color than the politically correct marinaras of today.

It's the kind of thing you'd get in a Mom and Pop Italian restaurant that's been around for decades. I THINK it's probably the sort of thing you might have gotten if you'd ordered spaghetti and meatballs at an American Italian restaurant in the 50s or something.

I know it's cooked for 5-6 hours or something, and I think it usually has some kind of bone in it.

I'm finding some things that look like they might be approaching it, but nothing that looks exactly right, so I thought I'd check with you guys first to see if I can pillage your history and ultimately sully your family name with whatever godawful bastard marinara I come up with.