Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[Signe]

It's nearly A-mish season around here!     And fresh sweet corn in a few weeks!   

[voodoolily]

Ours is already a foot tall. It should be ready to eat by the end of July. Then the aphids and aphid-farming ants arrive and set up shop all over the stalks. Whoopee.

[apocrypha]

Last night we had Eggs Florentine made with spinach from our own garden. It was 

And our broad beans are flowering and the potato plants in tubs have grown so high, so fast that we had to extend the height of the tubs with some modified (i.e. the bottom cut out) expanding log holders. The apple, pear and plum trees are flowering, as are the blueberries and strawberries. The 2 rows of fennel have all come up, although they're still only about 10cm tall and the herb bed is going bonkers. Even the horseradish plant is flourishing! It's so exciting 

[Mosesandstick]

Made fresh guacamole for the first time last night. Will never buy it again 

[Sky]

Mmm...horseradish. I slather the stuff on sandwiches, the Heluvagood brand is sooo sharp.

We had some leftover burritos last night, with some rice/beans/veg plus leftover grilled pork. Mine were way better because they had some wonderful avocado and leftover andoulie, she doesn't think she likes either.

[Signe]

Poor Righ.  I hardly cook now.  I have no appetite at all and I'm never in the mood for hot food.  I get this way every summer.  I prefer cold dinners and mostly fruit and veggies.  Righ likes a bit of meat with his dinner.  I swear I could live on summer fruit if most of it wasn't so packed full of sugar!  As far as meat goes, I almost never eat beef or lamb during the summer, or meat other than chicken and fish, really.  It's time to replace my grill (which I gave to my nephew a few months ago) and drag out some new summer recipes.  I hope we don't deplete the world's stock of salmon because my summers depend on it!

[voodoolily]

Poor Righ.  I hardly cook now.  I have no appetite at all and I'm never in the mood for hot food.  I get this way every summer.  I prefer cold dinners and mostly fruit and veggies.  Righ likes a bit of meat with his dinner.  I swear I could live on summer fruit if most of it wasn't so packed full of sugar!  As far as meat goes, I almost never eat beef or lamb during the summer, or meat other than chicken and fish, really.  It's time to replace my grill (which I gave to my nephew a few months ago) and drag out some new summer recipes.  I hope we don't deplete the world's stock of salmon because my summers depend on it!

This is how I am now, too, but it's not cuzza the weather! 

I made some delicious soup on Saturday with good Spanish chorizo (the dry kind), cannellini beans and Swiss chard from the garden. I tossed some dried porcini in there for good measure. It was delicious - the leftovers are even better! I still ended up eating chocolate ice cream for dinner last night, though. 

[apocrypha]

Need help.

What to do with spare egg whites? We have several recipes that use egg yolks only, which often leaves us with a surfeit of egg whites. The only thing we can come up with is meringues.

Any ideas?

[Tarami]

Meringue? You can also make sorbet using egg whites.

[Samwise]

A nice Ramos Fizz is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of egg whites.

[hal]

Well a month or so ago something snaped. You could hear it like a green stick fracture. I got a Weber smoky mountain. A water smoker. A slow cooker with smoke powered by charcoal. Years ago when I was married and lived in Tennessee I had a Brinkman water smoker and thought I did a decent pork shoulder. Oh my god. The difference is so great. It is an appliance that for me does 2 dishes. Ribs and mister brown. Mister brown if you haven't met him is Carolina style pulled pork bar b Que. All I have made as of yet is ribs but OMG the ribs all that connective tissue turns to gelatin and flavor with a great smoke ring. I am determined to do mister brown on the fourth. Its an over night smoke. I will report back.

The spell checker is on fire again...Sigh...

[apocrypha]

Never did use the egg whites

Made fresh guacamole for the first time last night. Will never buy it again 

I just did this too. Was going to have a ham sandwich for lunch when I noticed an avocado lurking in the salad drawer and remembered what you'd said, so I made the simplest, quickest guacamole ever (avocado, tomato, chilli, lime juice, salt & pepper) and it was awesome!

And then I forgot I'd chopped a chilli and rubbed my eye. Haha oops.

[Numtini]

Fresh guac is suck a pain here. The avacados we get all seem to require about a week to ripen enough, so you just can't do anything with them spontaneously.

[voodoolily]

Need help.

What to do with spare egg whites? We have several recipes that use egg yolks only, which often leaves us with a surfeit of egg whites. The only thing we can come up with is meringues.

Any ideas?

You can freeze them in ice cube trays for later use (each cube is about an egg's worth) - since they're just water and protein they thaw just fine. I think I read this in What Einstein Told His Cook.

[croaker69]

Need help.

What to do with spare egg whites? We have several recipes that use egg yolks only, which often leaves us with a surfeit of egg whites. The only thing we can come up with is meringues.

Any ideas?

The best cake in the world..Angel Food.

[Ookii]

Best cake in the world is Tres Leches!

[voodoolily]

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting! Duncan Hines for the motherfucking win.

[apocrypha]

You can freeze them in ice cube trays for later use (each cube is about an egg's worth) - since they're just water and protein they thaw just fine. I think I read this in What Einstein Told His Cook.

Oh nice one, thanks. Sounds more likely to be successful than my attempt to freeze thai red curry paste in the same way. The entire freezer, everything in it and the ice cube trays smelled of red thai curry paste for ever more... 

The best cake in the world..Angel Food.

This? Looks interesting, I'll find a recipe and give it a go, cheers!

[Sky]

Yellow cake

WILSON!

[Signe]

Wash your freezer thouroughly with tomato juice.  Really.  Also, angel food cake is easy peasy to make.  Eat it with your fingers.  Righ is away at some festival for a few days.  I lose my will to cook when he's not about.  Tonight for dinner:  a nectarine and some little chili flavoured pretzels!

[croaker69]

You can freeze them in ice cube trays for later use (each cube is about an egg's worth) - since they're just water and protein they thaw just fine. I think I read this in What Einstein Told His Cook.

Oh nice one, thanks. Sounds more likely to be successful than my attempt to freeze thai red curry paste in the same way. The entire freezer, everything in it and the ice cube trays smelled of red thai curry paste for ever more... 

The best cake in the world..Angel Food.

This? Looks interesting, I'll find a recipe and give it a go, cheers!

That is it.  I always use the Good Eats recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/angel-food-cake-recipe/index.html

[Numtini]

Righ is away at some festival for a few days.  I lose my will to cook when he's not about.  Tonight for dinner:  a nectarine and some little chili flavoured pretzels!

Oddly, I always cook up a storm when my partner is away. I love food, I love to cook, and there's lots of things I love that she doesn't and I go into a caloric frenzy on those things when she's gone.

Back to the foodie thing. It's been a horrible cold spring and summer and our CSA has... peas. Lots of them. I generally don't get decent fresh peas so I don't really have much experience other than the standard peas with butter. Pea soup with mint and some cold salads with them come to mind. Any good ideas for a somewhat more involved warm dish that might show them off well? Most of the hot sides I've seen drench them in something guaranteed to cover up any of their actual taste.

[Trippy]

Not exactly a side dish but:

Peas, crumbled Italian sausage (or whatever type you like), ricotta cheese, and pasta (I like orecchiette for this recipe). If you are going to use a long strand pasta like fettucine you might want to smash up the peas with a potato masher or large spoon. Save some pasta water to make the "sauce".

[voodoolily]

I like to make a zhoozhed up risi e bisi (rice and peas) by making a risotto with a good citrusy white wine and fresh peas. Make a basic recipe (here're my instructions, with peas and asparagus) and at the end add fresh peas (I slice them up, pods and all) and some peeled prawns, and lots of fresh thyme and lemon zest.

[Sky]

Or to be more redneck, make peas, macaroni, tuna and mayo. That was major fuel during the band years.

[voodoolily]

Or to be more redneck, make peas, macaroni, tuna and mayo cream of mushroom soup. That was major fuel during the band years.

FIFY

[Samwise]

Or to be more redneck, make peas, macaroni, tuna turkey, and mayo cream of mushroom soup. That was major fuel during the band years.

FIFY

FIFY

[voodoolily]

Uh, tuna casserole doesn't have turkey. 

[Samwise]

Now you're getting it.

[Yegolev]

I successfully made ice cream, and I mean SUCCESSFULLY.  I was worried about screwing up the egg part, but I was able to make a custard with no problems.  I give credit to the Kitchenaid recipe for suggesting I whisk the eggs and sugar in the mixer first, then add the hot cream mixture.

Because I didn't have much confidence in my ability to not make scrambled eggs, I read several recipes and discovered that everyone has their own version which led me to understand that it's pretty simple to make... otherwise there would be more consistency among recipes.

I boiled some cinnamon sticks in the cream, but the woman wanted a lot of cinnamon so I ended up putting a good bit of powder in it.  She says too much vanilla (1tsp), otherwise it was great.  Probably because of the Kitchenaid attachment, it was much better in softserve form right from the dasher/bowl because my freezer is very freezy and it turned into a brick, as I knew it would.

[voodoolily]

If you refrigerate the custard overnight and freeze the attachment overnight, you get pretty great ice cream right outta the gates.

[Yegolev]

I did that and it was.

If anyone is interested:

heavy cream : 2 cup
milk : 1 cup
cinnamon stick : 3
cinnamon powder : enough to see lots of dots in the final product

Heat this almost to a boil.

egg yolk : 6
sugar : 0.75 cup

Whisk this until no more progress is made.  I used the KA mixer.  When the cream mixture is really hot but not boiling, take out the sticks and add slowly to whisking egg-sugar mixture.  Whisk until no more progress is made.  Return to saucepan and heat slowly until thick.  The usual metric seems to be "coat the back of a spoon" and that's what I did, but I used some estimating since no one said just how thick of a coating.  I went with "kinda like gravy from a jar" thick.

vanilla extract : 1 tsp

Once the custard is ready (yeah, you just made a custard, beyotch) remove from heat and add vanilla.  I don't care to put really hot shit in my refrigerator so I sat the pan in a couple inches of cold water while I played Ghostbusters, then put it in.  You may play another game of similar-or-better quality.  Next morning I just put together the KA attachment, turned it on and poured the custard in.  Twenty minutes later I had fantastic ice cream.  Or my wife did, I didn't eat any.

[Signe]

The egg custard, not the ice cream, is almost exactly the same recipe many of my long dead Italian relatives made at least a couple of times a week.  It was like the standard weekday dessert.  Either that or a sponge cake. Most of the women on that side of my family were wonderful cooks but I didn't especially like those desserts when I was a kid.  I have more appreciation for the egg custard now, the few times either I or my sister have made it, but I still don't much care for sponge cake.  Too heavy.

[Sky]

Und keine eier.

[Trippy]

The egg custard, not the ice cream, is almost exactly the same recipe many of my long dead Italian relatives made at least a couple of times a week.  It was like the standard weekday dessert.

That's cause that's the popular Italian dessert semifreddo and you don't need an ice cream maker.