I have had this Collard Greens Ramen on my mind and, with fall deciding to land on us with both feet this weekend, it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.
I ended up making some deviations from the recipe as I went along:
because my grocery delivery swapped out my requested smoked ham hock for a “boneless ham nugget”, I made a beef bone broth early in the day to compensate for the lack of a ham bone to enrich the cooking liquid
left off the bacon and soft boiled egg in the recipe and swapped in some marinated bamboo shoots
dialed the ham back by about half and added a generous amount of roasted shiitakes
used dried ramen (J-Basket brand) in place of the instant ramen noodles called for
The result was fantastic! Lots of leftovers for dinner tomorrow too.
Chili! This batch involved just a bit of tomato paste and lots of dried chiles (ancho and guajillo, plus some paprika and kashmiri powder), ground beef and an assortment of fresh peppers from the garden. Hit the spot.
Porchetta-seasoned pork chop (cooked sous vide) with garlicky cauliflower purée and arugula salad. Made a little gravy with the pork juices, though the meat didn’t need it, it was good on the cauliflower.
I’ve got half of the chop left for tomorrow, but will have to replenish sides!
We enjoyed another sensational dinner at Fiorentini in Rutherford, NJ. They just switched over to their Fall menu. We enjoyed an excellent honeynut squash agnolotti with crispy soppressata, sage, gorgonzola, and amaretto; octopus with potato chorizo croquette, BBQ popcorn, and spicy chipotle; porcini gnocchi with crispy mushrooms and truffle sauce; awesome bone marrow with mushrooms, herbs, and orange pan brioche; seared venison with Brussel sprouts, potato terrine, castagnaccio, and marsala jus; black bass with creamy Italian butter beans, fresh herbs, candied lemon, and croutons. It all went great with a couple of excellent cabernets.
Tonight’s dinner was a stirfry with a mountain of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms with stirfried sauce (soy saice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic and ginger). Served over rice noodles.
Leftovers . But I did make hummus for the first time . Learned a trick off the web . Smooth and creamy. Put in the fridge to develop flavors over night. I’m pleased with the taste and texture .Cheers
Simple but yet complex tasting lamb curry in a sweet onion-tomato sauce from 660 Curries. Sauce was made from coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, sirarakhong chili, ginger, garlic, cardamom pods, bay leaves, fried onion paste, cilantro and tomato sauce. Served with basmati rice and some vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, green beans) mixed with onions, ginger, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, mint, almonds and some yoghurt.
This cookbook is really good. I have about never had a poor result from it, and I have learned to ignore the spelling and grammar howlers. The recipes work for me (recipes are suggestions, improvise at will) and for DH (recipes are blueprints, deviate at your peril).
I also like your balanced food plate: meat, vegetables, rice. I personally would have added a raita or chopped salad (cucumber, tomato, onion), but sometimes people don’t.
So often non-Indian people make odd combinations of Indian food, like goat and chicken and no veg, or dal and chickpeas and meat, and still no veg.
I mean, it makes sense to combine a protein (dal or beans or paneer or meat) and one or two veg (varied by colour and consistency, e.g. green veg or potatoes or any other veg really) and the main staple starch (rice or rotis - you can have both but eaten serially).
People in the US tend to combine rotis with rice - maybe like a burrito? - and the recipe instructions when written by non South Asian cooks also reinforce that “serve XX with rice and naan-bread to sop up the sauce (aargh)”.
I get that the food is unfamiliar, but the cooks could take a little trouble to get the plating and combination right, which they definitely do for other cuisines.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
569
Camping with my son for 3 nights for his high school’s fall break. He’s a senior and our youngest of 4 so this is kind of an end-of-an-era thing for us, after 9 years of fall breaks.
I’d been planning chilli one night, brats another (my wife and an old work bud’s family will come out for that) but asked my wife and son for ideas for the remaining night.
He said do you remember that stuff we had with shrimp potatoes sausage and corn?
He’d remembered a low country boil we’d had on Spring Break about 5 years ago. The only reason I remember that meal specifically is it took an hour longer than promised while I’m standing there sweating (walk-up joint) and being told every 20 minutes that it should be out soon.
In their defense, it was very busy, and we did have a large order for 10.
So anyway, I figured sure, this will work. I pre-steamed the baby taters and corn and got pre-cooked andouille, slathered in butter, old bay, cayenne and premix “Cajun” seasoning. Coated the bottom of a dispo foil pan in butter and loaded the (now chilled) veggies and sausage.
Then I topped with 16 pats of butter (8 oz) covered in heavy foil, and cooked it last night for 20 minutes over the campfire coals. Really tasty. When I opened the package my son said we couldn’t eat half of it, but once we dug in it was hard to stop. There’s maybe 1/10th of it leftover.
Brats over applewood grill is tonight’s dinner (wife and friend bringing some sides).
Tomorrow is chilli also over applewood on the grill. I cook it in a heavy SuperMaid pan and the lid is off often enough with stirring that a lot of the smoke flavor creeps in and really enhances it (the chilli is something we do every camping trip).
Another day, another Aldi pasta: goat cheese & caramelized onion ravs. I made another fresh tomato sauce from my grated FM bounty, with diced shallots, toasted tomato paste, Calabrian peppers, just a touch of crème fraîche, and fresh basil.
The ravs were oddly sweet (I blame the caramelized onion), so we likely won’t be having the leftovers or getting these again. Hopefully, the basil & pine nut ravs are better
Cheers
