What's Cooking?

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We had some honeyed ham for our Xmas dinner last night. Nothing special, but it was good.
I'm gonna do something I've wanted to do for awhile - Turducken!
Ordered a 10 lb roll and got it yesterday. Gonna thaw it and probably cook it for NYE.

 

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That rib roast looks pretty insane. I've had sporadic success with them, but they intimidate me. Played it safe tonight with dry-aged NY Strips, garlic lemon baby bok choy, and the wife's "famous" mac & cheese.

 

The Christmas Cuban-style pork roast...little over halfway done.

 

Christmas breakfast. Scrambled eggs w/extra hot chili verde on top accompanied by crispy hash browns with diced onions and garden fresh jalapeno and serrano chilis. Whole wheat tortilla to mop it all up. Muy bueno.

 

I cooked a standing rib roast too. They shouldn't intimidate you. They are really easy to cook.

 

Finished product....home made lechon asado.

 

Yep, biggest mistake people make is trying to cook things like a roast by minutes per pound and setting a timer. Get a good thermometer and go by temp to figure out when it’s done.

My wife bought me a new instant read thermometer for Christmas that I broke in last night. Thermoworks Thermapen MK4

Looks amazing! Do you pull it? Serve on sandwich rolls?

 

The rest of the story....

Lechon asado, moros (black beans & rice mixed), yuca (cassava root, done much like a potato but with mojo on it), and platanos maduros (soft fried bananas...candy!!!). I am in heaven...

 

I use the time calculation as a ballpark, but fine tune it with internal temp. That way I can plan backwards for getting everything one the table at the right time.

 

My brother in law is making a Turducken again. He tried a different butcher in Louisiana this time.

 

Curious about the backstory of the previous butcher/turducken.

 

This mornin’ I made the best frittata ever. It fed 4 of us

 

It wasn’t stuffed correctly, so the duck and chicken took cooked quickly while the turkey and it’s stuffing were unde done. The butcher had hundreds of great reviews but claimed someone else prepped it and it’s preparation fell through the cracks. Here is a picture of the birds in question

 

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Thermapen FTW.

Spatchcock Turkey the other day.

 

I cooked my turducken yesterday. Turned out pretty good, with some caveats.
I got a 10lb loaf that was supposed to have cornbread stuffing between the layers. Well, it was mostly stuffing. There wasn't very much chicken at all, but a decent amount of duck, through only about half of it. The stuffing was also a bit spicey for my taste.
I wouldn't do this one again, paying $8/lb for stuffing is just a bit high. I was doing it just for the novelty.

The slice pic is one of the ones with the most meat, other areas had even more stuffing.

 

Spatchcock is the way to go, as is using a Thermapen! Can’t believe I’ve gone this long without one.

My wife just got me a wok setup for my Big Green Egg so I’ll be dipping my toes into that realm of cooking next. Already have my wok seasoned, just waiting on some oils and sauces to arrive before I can give it a go.

 

I use a super easy "Asian" style base that's easily modifiable. Just basically water and soy sauce heated with a mix of water/corn starch to thicken. Depending what I want, I'll use: thai chili paste, chili flake, brown sugar, fish sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, anything else I feel like mixing in. I'll usually stir fry veggies and a proteien along with soba noodles or rice and then just mix all together. Super quick and always tasty.

 

So far I’m getting the following for base ingredients, I also ordered some squirt bottles for sauces/oils and some disposable paper hot dog boats to put portioned ingredients in. Obviously I need the other ingredients and already have some staples like cornstarch, this is just what I’ve researched needing for various cooks that I don’t already have.

Shaoxing wine
Toasted sesame oil
Peanut oil
Dark soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Stir fry oil (oil with ginger/garlic flavors for quick cooks that require minimal prep)

 

On the cooking 'theme', my go to kitchen things

- cast iron skillet. I literally cook almost everything in it. Sprung for a Fields and it's awesome. Would like to try some other high end ones. Used a Lodge for years and it works, but no comparison.
-Zojirushi rice cooker. Perfect rice every time.
-Slow cooker/Crock pot
-Vitamix, sauces, chop veggies, blend spices, whatever. Another thing I use probably almost every day.
-Traeger, by far my favorite grill. With kids/family/parties/pool, I love being able to feed it and get killer BBQ/grill stuff. I've always loved cooking, but not a huge fan of constant tending of a smoker or other things along those lines. I love that I can smoke pulled pork and go for a ride and come back and it's perfect.

 

Yup, add to the list. I use all of those. Another super easy one that my family loves is orange chicken. 1" ish cubes, roll in cornstarch and pan fry. I've wanted to make from scratch, but the premade sauces are pretty good and it's a lot of random ingredients to get that would add up. I just try to find the bottles with the least amount of sugar/junk in them.

 

Couldn’t agree more on cast iron, although I only have a Lodge skillet and Lodge griddle (smash burgers!).

My wife currently runs the rice cooker but now that I’m getting into wokking I’m sure I’ll find a reason to replace our current one.

Need/want a Vitamix, it’s like a food processor, juicer and blender in one. Our food processor scares me.

I was Traeger curious for a quick minute but have no complaints with my egg and will be adding an app enabled temp controller soon. Even without one I rarely have to touch the airflow settings during a low and slow. Best thing about the egg is I can use it to cold smoke cheese or fire a pizza at 800+ degrees. Swiss Army knife cooker, good at most things but not the best at any method.

 

I have this one, it's my goto for pretty much everything. Just gets better. The bottom is glass smooth. I do fried eggs in it all the time. Amazing after making some fried chicken and cooking some bacon to season:

https://fieldcompany.com/products/field-cast-iron-skillet?variant=4483653664795

For the Vitamix, I have the older version that has the really tall jug. The newer ones are more wide and squat. Kind of a pain since it doesn't fit under a cabinet, but it still works awesome. One of my favorite things to make is cheese sauce. No saucepan, just throw into the vitamix and blend until boiling...

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/11/sodium-citrate-baked-mac-and-cheese.html

 

Where’s the ‘Mouth watering’ emoji?


Looks like we got some pretty darn good cooks in some kitchens

 

I will be having a breast of parakeet sammich a little later tonight if our damned bird doesn't shut his beak!

 

No pics, but I bbq'd (over charcoal, no less) (GASP!!) 4 very tasty filets mignon when the kid and her boyfriend came over for dinner the other night. Chancy, but timing is everything. It was beef perfection, I tell ya!

Paired with garlic mashed potatos and salad. Mwah!

 

Anyone in OC area needs to visit Beef Palace in HB! Treat yo self!

 

Concur! I don’t even eat beef much, but when I do, BP is the place. I don’t make burgers from anything but their GB any more.
The boneyard for dog bones is great too.