What's cookin', good lookin'? Part II

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Spanish Tappas.
It was wonderful!
No pictures as we were much too busy eating it.

¡Tan riquísimo!
My favourite was always mejillones, even though I am not normally a huge seafood fan. And croquetas. But then again, who doesn't like fried food when you're out drinking?

 

[seela]

Lamb patties, broccoli and zucchini with sesame and carrot salad.

Edit: Here be a steamy pic.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Lamb patties, broccoli and zucchini with sesame and carrot salad.

Edit: Here be a steamy pic.

Looks really good, seela!
And I have been hankering for lamb lately, too...

 

[seela]

Pulla and garlic and rosemary bread rolls. I'm stress kneading again.

 

[cfuhrer]

When I was a kid one of my favorite restaurants was a little, local, hole in the wall Mexican place. They've gone out of business and it's been over 20 years since I last ate there.

I loved their guacamole.

Last night I managed to make some at home that tasted just the same. I was very pleased.

 

[cfuhrer]

¡Tan riquísimo!

I'd never had Tappas before but to me it looked more like an antipasto platter (which to be honest I've never had an authentic antipasto platter either).

It was cured meats, cheeses in a basalmic drizzle, marinated artichokes and olives, roasted red peppers with dried fruit and spiced nuts. It was lovely!

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[seela]

Mushrooms, cooked whole and slowly on the job, then a dash of lemon juice, sumac, and lemon thyme, French tarragon and parsley. sharp yet earthy, warm yet fresh.

I'm naturally curious, which mushrooms did you use?

Sadly I haven't been able to find any more of these after I found the few handfuls of small ones a few weeks ago. I also missed out on St. George's mushrooms, but I'm hoping I'll still be able to track down these.

My mushroom stash is running dangerously low. I really, really hope this is going to be a better mushroom year than the previous one.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[seela]

You'll be bored! Just chestnut ones, but I don't think I would have so assaulted the flavour of better ones. I'm going to make my *modest* yummy mushroom tart in a couple of weeks and I'll be looking for 'better' mushrooms for that. I have only looked at home this year, but it's not looking great here.

All mushrooms are interesting. There really is such a wide variety of them and hugely different flavor profiles. For example, I love using saffron milk caps and false saffron milk caps with Asian flavors. They're good in stir fry. And sheep polypores go well with most anything, it's kind of like tofu of the forest. Even the texture is similar to firm tofu.

Ah, mushrooms.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[MeekMe]

Tonight is the second night this week I'm making tomato sauce. The very first time I made sauce I went through the whole skinning and seeding process and followed a recipe. I wasn't impressed with the sauce at all. This time I decided to make it with the whole tomato and just did what I want with it. It came out fantastic! Today I'm making the sauce again (I purchased 5 lbs of tomato on sale ) and this time I'm making it like the last attempt, but I grated some carrot to put in for a little bit of sweetness. The flavor of this sauce is a little more complex. I'm seriously enjoying this process.

Also, pickled beet eggs.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

I'm naturally curious, which mushrooms did you use?

Sadly I haven't been able to find any more of these after I found the few handfuls of small ones a few weeks ago.

Seela, how do you prepare these / what cooking method? The wiki says they may still remain toxic even with proper preparation. Do you eat them sparingly, or is that just a lot of hype?


....................

I somehow missed Meeks post. Your eggs are beautiful! As is the whole plate

 

[seela]

Seela, how do you prepare these / what cooking method? The wiki says they may still remain toxic even with proper preparation. Do you eat them sparingly, or is that just a lot of hype?

Well, toxic... Sure, not all of the toxins can be removed, but after proper preparation the amount is so tiny, that you would have to eat tons and tons of them to get any symptoms.

I only eat them around three, four times a year, this year probably even less, so I don't worry about the potential toxicity at all. If I'd eat them all the time, I would worry about it more, because the toxin can accumulate over time.

I prep the mushrooms by boiling them in a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors, in lots of water for five minutes. After that the water is discarded, the mushrooms rinsed and then they're boiled again in fresh water for another five minutes. Again the water is discarded and the mushrooms rinsed. I even wash my pot between the boils, but not everybody does that and I've never heard of anybody dying from those mushrooms.

If you dry the mushrooms (as in dehydrate), that deminishes the toxicity as well, but even the dried mushrooms you have to boil twice before using after you have rehydrated them. The toxin in the mushrooms is water soluble.

After boiling them I use them like any other mushroom. But all in all, if you don't know what you're doing, it's best not to pick these mushrooms.

Every now and again you hear about people getting serious poisonings or a few times even die from mushrooms, but it's always been because of the Destroying angel and once I remember there being a news article about someone eating these mushrooms and getting a very severe poisoning. People mix up the destroying angel with wild button mushroom relatives and the other ones with sheated wood tufts.

Although I partially blame media for the mixups with sheated wood tufts. Every fall there are huge articles about mushroom picking, and every single time they mention sheated wood tufts as mushrooms that are relatively easy to find and are plentiful. They also mention that you don't eat the stem, so you can discard the stem already in the forest. So that's what people do, they discard the stem.

Well, the stem just happens to be the easiest way to tell them apart from the poisonous ones, because the color of the caps varies somewhat, so it would be really good to have the stem, too. I'm relatively knowledgeable about mushrooms, and yet, even when I pick wood tufts, I always pick them with the stems so that I can double check they're not the poisonous one when I clean them at home. The stem is not the only identifying feature, but it's the easiest one to spot (brown flakes on white stem or white flakes on brown stem). I think not being poisoned really is worth the effort of bringing the stems home, even if you don't end up eating them.

 

[seela]

Tonight is the second night this week I'm making tomato sauce. The very first time I made sauce I went through the whole skinning and seeding process and followed a recipe. I wasn't impressed with the sauce at all. This time I decided to make it with the whole tomato and just did what I want with it. It came out fantastic! Today I'm making the sauce again (I purchased 5 lbs of tomato on sale ) and this time I'm making it like the last attempt, but I grated some carrot to put in for a little bit of sweetness. The flavor of this sauce is a little more complex. I'm seriously enjoying this process.

Also, pickled beet eggs.

The eggs look really cool!

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Well, toxic... Sure, not all of the toxins can be removed, but after proper preparation the amount is so tiny, that you would have to eat tons and tons of them to get any symptoms.

I only eat them around three, four times a year, this year probably even less, so I don't worry about the potential toxicity at all. If I'd eat them all the time, I would worry about it more, because the toxin can accumulate over time.

I prep the mushrooms by boiling them in a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors, in lots of water for five minutes. After that the water is discarded, the mushrooms rinsed and then they're boiled again in fresh water for another five minutes. Again the water is discarded and the mushrooms rinsed. I even wash my pot between the boils, but not everybody does that and I've never heard of anybody dying from those mushrooms.

If you dry the mushrooms (as in dehydrate), that deminishes the toxicity as well, but even the dried mushrooms you have to boil twice before using after you have rehydrated them. The toxin in the mushrooms is water soluble.

After boiling them I use them like any other mushroom. But all in all, if you don't know what you're doing, it's best not to pick these mushrooms.

Every now and again you hear about people getting serious poisonings or a few times even die from mushrooms, but it's always been because of the Destroying angel and once I remember there being a news article about someone eating these mushrooms and getting a very severe poisoning. People mix up the destroying angel with wild button mushroom relatives and the other ones with sheated wood tufts.

Although I partially blame media for the mixups with sheated wood tufts. Every fall there are huge articles about mushroom picking, and every single time they mention sheated wood tufts as mushrooms that are relatively easy to find and are plentiful. They also mention that you don't eat the stem, so you can discard the stem already in the forest. So that's what people do, they discard the stem.

Well, the stem just happens to be the easiest way to tell them apart from the poisonous ones, because the color of the caps varies somewhat, so it would be really good to have the stem, too. I'm relatively knowledgeable about mushrooms, and yet, even when I pick wood tufts, I always pick them with the stems so that I can double check they're not the poisonous one when I clean them at home. The stem is not the only identifying feature, but it's the easiest one to spot (brown flakes on white stem or white flakes on brown stem). I think not being poisoned really is worth the effort of bringing the stems home, even if you don't end up eating them.

Ok, thanks!
My field guide says there are old mushroom pickers, and bold mushroom pickers, but no old bold mushroom pickers

 

[seela]

Eggplant and tomato quiche, salad, marinated chickpeas.

 

[barefootgirl69]

Eggplant and tomato quiche, salad, marinated chickpeas.

That looks delicious! What kind of cheese did you use?

 

[seela]

That looks delicious! What kind of cheese did you use?

I didn't use cheese, just eggs and milk.

There's a layer of sauteed onion, garlic and chopped tomatoes, two layers of roasted eggplant slices and the egg and milk mixture.

I used teff and graham flour for the crust, that's why it's so dark.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Looks yum as usual, Seela.
I breaded and fried pork tenderloin cutlets last night that I cut about an inch thick and then pounded flat. Dipped in egg, breaded with plain breadcrumbs, a tad bit of plain flour, smidge of corn meal, parmesan, salt and pepper. Squeeze of lemon after pan frying, and served with sauteed veggies o' the fridge drawer medley (pattipan squash, red bell and sweet onion).
And a lemon cupcake with cream cheese icing. Ummmm... maybe two

 

[Sweetemmygirl]

Looks yum as usual, Seela.
I breaded and fried pork tenderloin cutlets last night that I cut about an inch thick and then pounded flat. Dipped in egg, breaded with plain breadcrumbs, a tad bit of plain flour, smidge of corn meal, parmesan, salt and pepper. Squeeze of lemon after pan frying, and served with sauteed veggies o' the fridge drawer medley (pattipan squash, red bell and sweet onion).
And a lemon cupcake with cream cheese icing. Ummmm... maybe two

That sounds utterly amazing.

I need to go cook something now but I'm at a loss for what to cook

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[cfuhrer]

Grilled chicken with honey mustard, baked potato with the works, roasted broccoli, dinner roll.

Dessert will be cinnamon apples, probably over a short cake biscuit with whipped cream.

 

[seela]

Grilled chicken with honey mustard, baked potato with the works, roasted broccoli, dinner roll.

Dessert will be cinnamon apples, probably over a short cake biscuit with whipped cream.

Yes please.

I've been having zero interest in cooking again, so we're eating boring food all the time. I should plan something for this week, but blah...

 

[seela]

Shrimp noodle salad.