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Shit I've Cooked Lately


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This is nothing fancy. But some of it is awesome.

I like broccoli. It’s one of my favorite green vegetables and other than just eating it raw as a snack or in a salad, or having it steamed as a side, I’ve looked into other ways to prepare it.

Speaking of having it steamed as a side, I went back to shaggy to find a post I made when my dad shared some walleye with me from his recent fishing trip. I could’ve arranged the fish better on the plate but I was in a hurry to eat. As it turned out, my dad passed away just over a month after I posted that pic.

image.png.28664a3c0665590f774487fd6173b4c0.png

Here’s just basic cheesy rice with kielbasa, broccoli, red pepper, and red onion baked in a cast iron skillet. I found a really good kielbasa made up near Cleveland (Fligner’s). I often use it in a stew with potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions with garlic, beer, and horseradish, but I got inspired by some tv commercial from Johnsonville to use it in cheesy rice. Fligner’s kielbasa is way better than Johnsonville. And I think broccoli, red bell pepper, and red onion go really well together. (More of that to come).

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This is my own creation. I’d never heard of pastalaya before and this isn’t that. But it has a little bit of a Cajun flair. There’s no trinity. But it’s chicken and andouille sausage (or the closest thing I can find to andouille at a reasonable price without resorting to mail order) with a lot of garlic and cayenne. It’s got broccoli and red bell pepper and red onion again and it’s excellent. Those flavors all just blend so well. It seems like I’m making so much of it but then a day or two later it’s all gone.

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Now, for the above two dishes you can make your own cheese sauce. But if you’re a single guy just cooking for yourself, this is totally acceptable:

D3B2E130-3A66-457E-B569-C8A9F254829F.png.6ed83e4b2b7ae17bdbe36ebce007951d.png

Have you ever eaten at bd’s Mongolian BBQ? I believe their newer stores are called bd’s Mongolian Grill. Both are misnomers because it’s neither a BBQ nor a grill and the only thing Mongolian about it are the pictures on the walls. It’s basically a make-your-own-stir-fry joint with a large buffet of raw meats, vegetables, spices, and sauces that you select and bring to the cooks who stir-fry it for you (with wooden sticks on a big, round, flat griddle the likes of which the Mongolians don’t use - they’re a meat and potatoes people - at least that’s what I was told by a young Croatian woman whose father was from Mongolia).

Anyway, this is the dish I created there. I could go on at length about what I don’t like about that restaurant, and how they’ve changed over the years, but I’ll spare you. I haven’t dined there in years and I’m surprised they’ve managed to survive the pandemic. But I think this combination rocks.

I can make it simple or a little more complex. At its simplest it starts with vegetable oil, I add curry powder and cayenne, then chicken, broccoli, onions, water chestnuts, and bean sprouts. Sometimes I’ll include mushrooms. If I want to be more fancy I’ll add freshly minced garlic and ginger before the meat and vegetables. I’ll add a splash of chicken stock if it seems to be getting a little dry, and/or a splash of white wine. When it’s done I’ll give it a spritz of fresh lemon juice. I serve it with a side of rice. It’s not that it’s all that fancy but you might try it because it kicks all sorts of ass and I think I could eat it every day.  

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I’ve tried all sorts of curry powders and I like them all just fine. I’ve tried them from McCormick and Simply Organic and a variety from Penzey’s. Lately I’ve been using this:

6A9F613E-02E4-4157-8CDB-46291FA8C741.png.6cbbb76ce8bd288e6ea332d5a381aed2.png

Bon appétit.

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7 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Here’s just basic cheesy rice with kielbasa, broccoli, red pepper, and red onion baked in a cast iron skillet. I found a really good kielbasa made up near Cleveland (Fligner’s). I often use it in a stew with potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions with garlic, beer, and horseradish, but I got inspired by some tv commercial from Johnsonville to use it in cheesy rice. Fligner’s kielbasa is way better than Johnsonville. And I think broccoli, red bell pepper, and red onion go really well together. (More of that to come).

68EDD36E-6A39-40FA-BB93-C461DE88BFC8.thumb.jpeg.87e32a433c7c422e7250dc61c9ac3e6f.jpeg

My mom would make a variation of this at least once a week when I was a kid only she'd throw in a little cabbage.  She called it "kielbasa wreck." Good eats.

Edited by Dutch
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6 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

This is nothing fancy. But some of it is awesome.

I like broccoli. It’s one of my favorite green vegetables and other than just eating it raw as a snack or in a salad, or having it steamed as a side, I’ve looked into other ways to prepare it.

Speaking of having it steamed as a side, I went back to shaggy to find a post I made when my dad shared some walleye with me from his recent fishing trip. I could’ve arranged the fish better on the plate but I was in a hurry to eat. As it turned out, my dad passed away just over a month after I posted that pic.

image.png.28664a3c0665590f774487fd6173b4c0.png

Here’s just basic cheesy rice with kielbasa, broccoli, red pepper, and red onion baked in a cast iron skillet. I found a really good kielbasa made up near Cleveland (Fligner’s). I often use it in a stew with potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions with garlic, beer, and horseradish, but I got inspired by some tv commercial from Johnsonville to use it in cheesy rice. Fligner’s kielbasa is way better than Johnsonville. And I think broccoli, red bell pepper, and red onion go really well together. (More of that to come).

68EDD36E-6A39-40FA-BB93-C461DE88BFC8.thumb.jpeg.87e32a433c7c422e7250dc61c9ac3e6f.jpeg

This is my own creation. I’d never heard of pastalaya before and this isn’t that. But it has a little bit of a Cajun flair. There’s no trinity. But it’s chicken and andouille sausage (or the closest thing I can find to andouille at a reasonable price without resorting to mail order) with a lot of garlic and cayenne. It’s got broccoli and red bell pepper and red onion again and it’s excellent. Those flavors all just blend so well. It seems like I’m making so much of it but then a day or two later it’s all gone.

4FF673CD-9B9A-4836-966C-C7413A611232.thumb.jpeg.24b68883ff1098973adc4faff109bd30.jpeg

Now, for the above two dishes you can make your own cheese sauce. But if you’re a single guy just cooking for yourself, this is totally acceptable:

D3B2E130-3A66-457E-B569-C8A9F254829F.png.6ed83e4b2b7ae17bdbe36ebce007951d.png

Have you ever eaten at bd’s Mongolian BBQ? I believe their newer stores are called bd’s Mongolian Grill. Both are misnomers because it’s neither a BBQ nor a grill and the only thing Mongolian about it are the pictures on the walls. It’s basically a make-your-own-stir-fry joint with a large buffet of raw meats, vegetables, spices, and sauces that you select and bring to the cooks who stir-fry it for you (with wooden sticks on a big, round, flat griddle the likes of which the Mongolians don’t use - they’re a meat and potatoes people - at least that’s what I was told by a young Croatian woman whose father was from Mongolia).

Anyway, this is the dish I created there. I could go on at length about what I don’t like about that restaurant, and how they’ve changed over the years, but I’ll spare you. I haven’t dined there in years and I’m surprised they’ve managed to survive the pandemic. But I think this combination rocks.

I can make it simple or a little more complex. At its simplest it starts with vegetable oil, I add curry powder and cayenne, then chicken, broccoli, onions, water chestnuts, and bean sprouts. Sometimes I’ll include mushrooms. If I want to be more fancy I’ll add freshly minced garlic and ginger before the meat and vegetables. I’ll add a splash of chicken stock if it seems to be getting a little dry, and/or a splash of white wine. When it’s done I’ll give it a spritz of fresh lemon juice. I serve it with a side of rice. It’s not that it’s all that fancy but you might try it because it kicks all sorts of ass and I think I could eat it every day.  

02119D9A-EC07-45B9-9F42-ECC94C3C08A8.thumb.jpeg.2584697f15013fb5fa459e0a1b4d4158.jpeg

I’ve tried all sorts of curry powders and I like them all just fine. I’ve tried them from McCormick and Simply Organic and a variety from Penzey’s. Lately I’ve been using this:

6A9F613E-02E4-4157-8CDB-46291FA8C741.png.6cbbb76ce8bd288e6ea332d5a381aed2.png

Bon appétit.

Don't know if you've tried broccoli this way... but it is my favorite way to eat it. 

Steam  it about half as long as you normally would pull it,  drain it,  and toss it with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic,  red pepper flake and orange juice. Then put it on a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler until you get some charred bits on it. Fucking slams. 

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9 minutes ago, pops said:

Don't know if you've tried broccoli this way... but it is my favorite way to eat it. 

Steam  it about half as long as you normally would pull it,  drain it,  and toss it with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic,  red pepper flake and orange juice. Then put it on a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler until you get some charred bits on it. Fucking slams. 

Sounds like how to prepare Brussels sprouts. The orange juice is a nice touch. When reheating rice dishes in the microwave I’ll often add a splash of OJ. 

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4 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Sounds like how to prepare Brussels sprouts. The orange juice is a nice touch. When reheating rice dishes in the microwave I’ll often add a splash of OJ. 

I do Brussels with shallot and bacon but similar. I love the crispy bits on green veg. 

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Don't know if you've tried broccoli this way... but it is my favorite way to eat it. 
Steam  it about half as long as you normally would pull it,  drain it,  and toss it with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic,  red pepper flake and orange juice. Then put it on a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler until you get some charred bits on it. Fucking slams. 

I will steam a bag of broccoli about 2/3 of the time in the microwave. I’ll heat up a cast iron skillet or a wok high and toss the broccoli in with no oil and toss and it will char a bit. When it’s where I want it Remove it. Then put in some oil, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, some shallots or onion and red bell pepper, toss til veg are cooked a bit, then make a sauce of soy, mirin, sesame oil, sugar. Put in the broccoli, toss them add the sauce.

Or make a sauce of olive oil, butter, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, red pepper. After tossing the broccoli shave some Parmesan on it.
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14 hours ago, South Austin said:

Whoever came up with the pairing of grilled cheese and tomato soup is a gotdam genius.

When I was a kid our grade school cooks served chili and cinnamon rolls. I never really understood the pairing but we didn’t complain. 
Less of a stomachache than the milk and pepperoni pizza days. 

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14 hours ago, pops said:

Don't know if you've tried broccoli this way... but it is my favorite way to eat it. 

Steam  it about half as long as you normally would pull it,  drain it,  and toss it with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic,  red pepper flake and orange juice. Then put it on a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler until you get some charred bits on it. Fucking slams. 

That sounds great. Gonna try it.

One simple broccoli thing I came across years ago is to make a vinaigrette that is 1 part Balsamic vinegar and 1 part soy sauce for the acid and then olive oil. I usually do like 2 TB of the vinegar and soy sauce and then maybe 1/3 cup olive oil (don't really measure)... that's enough for one bag of broccoli florets.

Toss the broccoli in that vinaigrette and let it set for an hour or so.  Then you can either eat them raw (which is awesome) or I'll char them a little on the grill or under the broiler. 

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42 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

When I was a kid our grade school cooks served chili and cinnamon rolls. I never really understood the pairing but we didn’t complain. 
Less of a stomachache than the milk and pepperoni pizza days. 

Holy shit.

I hadn't thought about that in decades, but as soon as I read it I had a very strong memory of chili and cinnamon rolls in the school cafeteria.  So yeah your lunch lady wasn't the only one. :D 

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Don't know if you've tried broccoli this way... but it is my favorite way to eat it. 
Steam  it about half as long as you normally would pull it,  drain it,  and toss it with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic,  red pepper flake and orange juice. Then put it on a cookie sheet and throw it under the broiler until you get some charred bits on it. Fucking slams. 

Use plenty of oil, then toss it on the grill. You get flare ups and grill char, it’s delicious.
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On 1/28/2022 at 10:30 AM, Kennythetiger said:

When I was a kid our grade school cooks served chili and cinnamon rolls. I never really understood the pairing but we didn’t complain. 

You should try Cincinnati chili sometime.

(Which I am totally having for lunch tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even buy some Rhinegeist Truth IPA to go with it. If only came in bottles, not in cans.)

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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9 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Pulled this lamb shoulder out of the freezer over the weekend, intending to smoke it.  I may have taken that action without checking the weather report, or after a few cocktails. 

Anyhow, undeterred. Although I only did a few hours in the smoke before finishing in the oven. I was burning logs pretty fast and didn't particularly see the added value after a few hours. Pics of the final product, deboned, and sliced up. Those ribs were attached to loin, and after some cleaning, served as snacks for the chef. Served with curried lentils. 

E7-A395-ED-95-B0-442-C-AB17-10-CBF5-B97-

29-C7-F3-BE-BB6-A-4-C7-D-8722-E18-F50211

38-FA4-C5-D-02-FF-416-A-8-B3-B-44-AD72-D

86910608-F337-4652-A9-F7-B15-A1-A82-A300

 

 

 

Moving from Pic 3 to Pic 4 for me would be hard to do. A guy like me would stand at the counter and eat that off of the cutting board with a knife. 

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43 minutes ago, ScooterHTX said:

Made an Asian rub with Chinese 5 spice and some other stuff. Smoked a pork putt and pork belly. Made an Asian slaw, topped topped bachmans japanese bbq sauce. Bought some bao buns at Asian grocery store and steamed them to serve bao sandwiches.
22d464a4b6dc97838509e78ce76c558c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh hell yes to this right here. 

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Got a recipe or special tips? That looks incredible.

Soak a pound of beans overnight.

Sauté a bell pepper, an onion, several stalks of celery, a bunch of garlic. Add the beans, a ham hock, and about a pound of sausage, and a bay leaf, cover with water. Simmer for 3-4 hours or so till done and thickened. Take out the hock, pull the meat off of it and put that back in the pot. Add a little bit of Cajun seasoning if you want.

Serve over rice with some diced green onion and many splashes of Crystal.

Sometimes I cut the sausage in rounds, sometimes in half moons. Mix it up, go crazy. Also, the recipe easily doubles for a group.
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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:


Soak a pound of beans overnight.

Sauté a bell pepper, an onion, several stalks of celery, a bunch of garlic. Add the beans, a ham hock, and about a pound of sausage, and a bay leaf, cover with water. Simmer for 3-4 hours or so till done and thickened. Take out the hock, pull the meat off of it and put that back in the pot. Add a little bit of Cajun seasoning if you want.

Serve over rice with some diced green onion and many splashes of Crystal.

Sometimes I cut the sausage in rounds, sometimes in half moons. Mix it up, go crazy. Also, the recipe easily doubles for a group.

Do you also mash some beans to add thickness?

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On 2/4/2022 at 11:13 AM, BHMCruiser said:

Got a recipe or special tips? That looks incredible.

I don’t know how Brisket makes his but that looks a lot like mine. I use Emeril’s recipe, more or less. And no, you don’t need a roux. You mash up some of the beans to make it thick. I once forgot to do that and it was still good. But you should mash up some of the beans. It’s better that way. Emeril’s recipe says to mash the beans against the side of the pot. I use a slotted spoon to remove some of the beans to a separate bowl where I use an immersion blender on them then return them to the pot. Use a little water or stock or beer or whatever to clean out that bowl.

Find some good smoked ham hocks. Those make for a great pot of beans. I used to be able to get good raw ones from a local market and smoke them myself but they stopped carrying those. Now when I ask them to special order raw ham hocks the ones they get aren’t as good. The two most important qualities of a good ham hock, imo, are that they should have edible meat on them and not a bunch of tiny bone parts that will fall off in the pot. In the latter case I’ll wrap the hocks in cheesecloth to prevent bone fragments from getting loose. Ideally there will be usable meat on the hocks so you can take them out of the pot after a couple hours, let them cool a little, harvest that meat, and return it to the pot. Finding a nugget of succulent hock meat in your beans is righteous. You can save the skin from the hocks, let it dry, then cut it up and fry it in bacon grease. Do not, and I can’t stress this strongly enough, DO NOT try to fry that skin while it’s still wet. The results will be explosive.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/red-beans-and-rice-3646321

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I generally don’t have to mash beans for thickness. I cook it long enough and stir with enough force a few times to smash some of the beans, and that does the trick.

As for the hocks, I usually use the ones that HEB puts out. BUT….if you’re ever traveling through East Bernard, hit up Vincek’s market and grab several house-smoked hocks. I get a bunch and put some in the freezer for later. Use em for both red beans and pintos.

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