What's Cooking? (New Jersey)

After virtually a month without being able to cook due to my October schedule (I think I cooked one meal all month), I have whipped up two feasts in as many nights in November.

Last night was chicken stuffed with asparagus and Swiss cheese, a side of arroz con gondules (rice and pidgeon peas with ham and spices), Justin made excellent stuffed mushrooms.

Tonight was shrimp cakes, roasted zucchini, homemade potato chips, biscuits, and picked up some Shop Rite clam strips (which aren’t bad).

No pictures. Too hungry to take any. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Tonight will be jambalaya, smoked chicken wings, smoked ribs, chili. Folks bringing random sides for the LSU/Bama game tonight.

Just had the first bloody Mary of the day. The. Will have to decide what to move on to but bourbon will be involved.

5 Likes

Wow, I’m coming to crash this party lol.

Tell me about these smoked wings please. What kind of wood, rub? Do you flash fry them once out of the smoke?

1 Like

Apple wood today, sometimes cherry. Rub is a basic one, paprika, chili powder, sugar, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder

No frying after, unless I happen to be frying something else. They still get pretty crispy.
Homemade blue cheese and wing sauce

2 Likes

Did you make your own shrimp cakes? All of this sounds delicious!

Yes, I can try to find the recipe if you would like. It’s very similar to a crab cake, only the shrimp is blended with the ingredients rather than left whole. There are scallions, egg, bread crumbs, etc. Very delicious. I like to make them slider size. Goes great on a Kings Hawaiian roll. Or even over lettuce with a garlic aioli drizzle.

2 Likes

potd1

Tonight was Stromboli night. One with mushrooms, broccoli, and mozzarella, and the other was a corned beef Reuben.

6 Likes

I always mix in pork, soy, and other asian spices and herbs.

1 Like

Yum. Sounds delicious and something my suddenly picky 1 year old might actually eat. If you can easily find a recipe, I would appreciate it. Don’t spend a lot of time hunting though. I’m sure I can pull one down online.

1 Like

Mrs. P made spicy roasted Brussel sprouts with Kimchi dressing from a recipe that she found in the Bergen Record a few weeks ago. It contained chopped garlic, fresh ginger, Korean gochujang paste, red pepper flakes, scallions, fish sauce, kosher salt, olive oil, and sugar. Wow! This was awesome and really packed a punch​:yum: I don’t think Mrs. P will be able to make Brussel sprouts a different way again :grinning:

3 Likes

Wow. Can you post the recipe?

Here you go Gracie. Mrs. P adjusted the recipe a little by adding less fish sauce (3 tablespoons) and more gochujang paste, but just taste it along the way and adjust it to your tastes accordingly.

Spicy Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Kimchi Dressing

Servings: 6 Start to finish: 30 minutes

2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

2 tablespoons olive oil

1⁄ 2 teaspoon kosher salt 1⁄ 4 cup fish sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons peeled, chopped fresh ginger

2 tablespoons gochujang paste (spicy Korean paste)

1⁄ 2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use Korean chili flakes, gochugaru, if you can find them)

6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (white and green parts)

1⁄ 2 cup minced red onion Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Place the Brussels sprouts together on the baking sheet, drizzle the olive oil over them, sprinkle with salt and toss. Spread the Brussels sprouts out on the sheet and bake for about

20 minutes, until they are just tender and browned in spots. Meanwhile, place the fish sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and gochujang paste in a food processor and process to combine. Turn the mixture into a large bowl and stir in the chili flakes, scallions and red onion.

Add the cooked Brussels sprouts to the bowl and toss so they are well-coated with the dressing. Serve warm. Nutrition information per serving: 158 calories; 46 calories from fat; 5 g fat (1 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 1,182 mg sodium; 26 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 11 g sugar; 7 g protein.

3 Likes

Made this “healthy alternative” General Tso’s Chicken last night from a recipe found online (chicken sauteed instead of deep fried). While it tasted good on its own, it was NOTHING like General Tso’s. In fact, none of those healthier recipes ever pan out to anything worthwhile.

tso

Aside from stir-fry, I’m ready to give up on Asian cooking. Eight million ingredients and never tastes restaurant quality. Trying to prep this dish was maddening.

3 Likes

I love reading posts about how quick and simple Chinese cooking is. One was titled, “5 minute meals”. The problem is that while the actual cooking time may be quick, the prep time is usually much, much longer.

3 Likes

Wow yummy. Big thanks to you and Mrs. P!

1 Like

Our pleasure Gracie! Let me know how it comes out.

1 Like

Oh yeah it’s absolute bullshit. After you spend two hours chopping the needed vegetables and protein, lining up the sauces and spices (or making your own sauce if need be) then maybe the cooking time will be five minutes.

There is no such thing as easy Chinese cooking…except reheating leftovers. :smiley:

3 Likes

You know, most of the Chinese recipes I read have a million ingredients. And most of them are not in my culinary pantry. Years ago, I took a Chinese cooking course taught by a Korean lady (go figure). Anyway all the stuff we cooked in class & everything in the cookbook she wrote that we got as part of class was really simple. And delicious. I’m going to speculate that most Asian cooks cook like western cooks - whatever is handy is what you use. We are sort of conditioned by the menus in Chinese restaurants to expect a long ingredient list.

Anyway - last night I made ginger pork with veggies. The veggies (at hand) were thin sliced cabbage, onions & carrots. They got cooked in a little oil in the wok & at the end I added a mix of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil & ginger. We had some thin slices of pork tenderloin in the freezer - I sliced them & marinated them in soy sauce, rice wine & a little cornstarch. After the veggies came out on a platter I put in the pork which was done in about three minutes & went on top of the cabbage. The rice cooker made the rice but Jul wanted noodles so they got boiled while everything else was cooking. She doesn’t like spicy so I left out the chili paste & just put some on mine at the table.

It was pretty good & I’d estimate the prep time at no more than 20 mins.

5 Likes

We had some excellent takeout tacos from A Taco Affair, in Little Falls, using Uber Eats, on this crappy rainy evening.
Smoked Brisket taco with house smoked brisket, coleslaw, and crispy red onions
Buffalo Chicken taco with Grilled Chicken, Creamy Celery Salad, Crumbled Blue Cheese, & Fried Onions
Buttermilk Fried Chicken taco with crispy fried chicken, jalapeno ranch, bacon, green tomato on a lettuce wrap
Po Boy taco with Cajun popcorn shrimp, red tomato, green cabbage, and old bay mustard aioli on a lettuce wrap
Buttermilk Fried Avocado with Chipotle Aioli
Mexican Street Corn with Charred Sweet Corn off the cob, Cilantro Lime Aioli, and a Special Cheese Blend
This all went great with Bergevin Lane Moonspell, a Columbia Valley Cabernet blend.



3 Likes

Good lord Eli. You need to get into the real estate busine$$. I’m ready to move up north lol.

Does Mrs P cook any old bay recipes? I love that spice! I love it on crab, corn and chicken wings with adobo. Sadly winter is coming, but I will still use it on some chicken. Try it on delmonte summer crisp corn if you haven’t yet. Load it up with old bay and butter. It’s the best thing you can get instead of fresh corn cobs.

2 Likes