Here you can just talk about MX or post interesting topics about what you have done in MX that you want to share with others. Other non-MX topics can be discussed within the Rules of the Forum.
Smacks of good ol' George Carlin - RIP - loved the man - still love cooking, but keep it simple these days
Used to cook all kinds of great dishes - zuppa di pesce - a beautiful Mediterranean fish soup frequently,
also osso bucco - an excellent hearty beef stew, in my restaurant-owner days - its a sure way to go bust,
as all your buds expect to eat & drink for free ... happy 5th
Regards
Jack
JayM wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 1:22 am
I've been craving mac and cheese lately.)
jackdanielsesq wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 2:02 am
Smacks of good ol' George Carlin - RIP - loved the man - still love cooking, but keep it simple these days
Used to cook all kinds of great dishes - zuppa di pesce - a beautiful Mediterranean fish soup frequently,
also osso bucco - an excellent hearty beef stew, in my restaurant-owner days - its a sure way to go bust,
as all your buds expect to eat & drink for free ... happy 5th
Regards
Jack
JayM wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 1:22 am
I've been craving mac and cheese lately.)
I made zuppa di pesce this past Friday for my wife and I's 30th anniversary. I followed a YT vid from Two Greedy Italians. Cheers!
I've never made zuppa di pesce but I've cooked pasta e fagioli before, though more of a Filipino version, kinda-sorta. I can't get cannellini beans here, but there's a cheap brand (Ram) of baked beans that contain Great Northern white beans in a tomato sauce. Perfect! I can also find canned red kidney beans in the Imported Foods aisle at some supermarkets. Garlic, carrots and onions abound, green bell peppers can be found, and sometimes celery but I usually substitute pechay (bok choy) so I also get some greens in the soup, plus pechay's always fresher than the celery you see here which always looks pretty wilted and sometimes yellowish. There are canned diced tomatoes available, and rather than pancetta or prosciutto (or ground meat) I usually use smoked longanisa sausages which add a mildly smokey, mildly sweet flavor when you bite into one. Couple that with a few spoonfuls of "Italian seasoning" dried herb mixture and a package of salad macaroni, and chicken broth to cook everything in, plus salt and pepper and it comes out pretty well. Make an odori of onion, carrot and chopped pechay stems (or celery) with some olive oil cooking until tender, add some garlic and let it sweat for a couple-three minutes, then just dump everything but the pasta in a big pot and cook it 'til it tastes good, then add the pasta and cook 'til that's al dente.
They have a fish soup here that's pretty delicious though a bit boney, called tinolang isda. Take a whole white fish or two, gutted, cleaned and scaled* and cut into fourths (head and all to be authentic); some not-quite-ripe small tomatoes, wedged; onion; garlic; fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced; several whole siling espadas (sword peppers, about the same heat as jalapeños which can be substituted); and some sort of green leafy veggie such as mulanggay, alugbati, kangkong or chili pepper leaves (you could use spinach or Swiss chard). water, salt and pepper. This is commonly eaten here in the Visayas during cooler weather, along with cooked rice, in a bowl. There's a Northern Philippines version that's also eaten here in the Visayas called tinolang manok, which uses chicken (manok) instead of fish (isda) and adds some small wedges of either green papaya or sayote (chayote) and usually omits the tomatoes.
IIRC they also do a type of sour soup with mussels and lemongrass (I think) but I'm hinky about eating shellfish in a country that relies on private septic tanks for sewage rather than waste treatment plants, so I've never tried it.
*In the Philippines when a fishmonger offers to clean the fish for you this entails removing the gills. That's it. You have to scale and gut the fish yourself after you get home. It's probably because they sell them by weight so they get more money this way, or perhaps just because "that's the way it's done."
Last edited by JayM on Sun May 05, 2019 5:27 am, edited 3 times in total.
That's wonderful - I hardly ever made it to the first, and I really tried to make honest women out of all of them
Of course, owning bars & restaurants are the proverbial kiss-of-death to any/all marriages.
Again - Congratulations - may you and your young bride have many, many more
Highest Regards
Jack
[/quote]
I made zuppa di pesce this past Friday for my wife and I's 30th anniversary. I followed a YT vid from Two Greedy Italians. Cheers!
[/quote]
jackdanielsesq wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 3:47 am
Oh Man ..
That's wonderful - I hardly ever made it to the first, and I really tried to make honest women out of all of them
Of course, owning bars & restaurants are the proverbial kiss-of-death to any/all marriages.
Again - Congratulations - may you and your young bride have many, many more
Highest Regards
Jack
I made zuppa di pesce this past Friday for my wife and I's 30th anniversary. I followed a YT vid from Two Greedy Italians. Cheers!
[/quote]
[/quote]
Thank you, Jack, that's very kind of you! I'll tell you what I knew two families growing up who owned food businesses (Deli's) in my hometown of Bayonne, NJ. One was my first gf's family, and the other was my aunt/uncle. The former owned an italian deli, and latter just a general type of deli. I remember vividly that they both lived to work, they were always working. Indeed it was their entire life. So I definitely understand how the restaurant business would be a kiss of death to relationships for the people running them. That's a sad truth. Thank you again for your very kind words Jack.
Mmmm, Yes, to answer the OP's 1st Q. Not in the mood to wax verbose atmo though. Seeing as how my earthlink personal webpage that I had favorite recipes on "is currently being migrated".
azrielle wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 11:55 pm
Mmmm, Yes, to answer the OP's 1st Q. Not in the mood to wax verbose atmo though. Seeing as how my earthlink personal webpage that I had favorite recipes on "is currently being migrated".
I've got homemade pizza on tap for tomorrow with the cheese I made yesterday. I have to get my homemade pizza fix on once or twice a week. :)
I'm short on cash right now so I have to stretch it. Therefor I've been making a lot of hearty soups and stews lately as they last me for many more meals than braised pork and veggies which is my usual fare.
Last Saturday I made a pork and monggo (green mung bean) curry. Today I made up a soup recipe using (what else in the Philippines?) pork, Chinese or Napa cabbage, some long (asparagus) beans and some other things, whatever looked good to me at my favorite vegetable stall at the neighborhood market.
Pork and monggo curry
500g (a skosh over a pound) of dried green mung beans
~370g (a skosh under a pound) of pork shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (fat, skin and all: Philippines again. They eat every part of a pig but the oink.)
2 large and 1 medium yellow potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 carrots, peeled and sliced at an angle
1 large white onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 or 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
6 pechays (bok choys), sliced crosswise into around 1 inch pieces
1 piece of fresh ginger root a bit larger than your thumb, peeled and sliced lengthwise (use a spoon to scrape the outside peel off: it lets you get into the nooks and crannies easier than a vegetable peeler)
2 sachets of Fat and Thin brand curry powder (probably the same amount of two jars of Schilling or McCormick curry powder, which you can use instead: it's a generic commercial yellow curry powder)
2 soup-can-size (or a bit larger) cans of coconut milk
Around 25g of chili powder (or less if you don't like a spicier curry as I do.)
Around 3 liters of water
4 large pork stock cubes
3 large chicken stock cubes
2 tsp MSG
3 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Place the mung beans in twice the level of water as the level of beans, soak for 24 hours, refrigerated.
Prepare all the other ingredients as stated above.
Drain the mung beans, place in a large pot along with the pork, onions, garlic, broth cubes and MSG. Add the water, cover and heat on medium-high until starting to boil. Reduce heat until there are just a few bubbles breaking on the surface. Continue cooking until the mung beans are almost completely tender, about an hour. Stir frequently as mung beans have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Add the remaining ingredients except for the coconut milk . Raise the heat until it just starts to boil then lower it as before. Cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender, stirring to prevent sticking.
Stir in the coconut milk. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, still stirring often.
Taste, add salt and pepper to your liking. Let cool to edible, not-burn-your-mouth temperature. Serve in bowls over cooked rice.
(Mrs. M. said it tasted like the Indian curry in Australia but it was a bit too spicy for her. Sorry, my dear.)
Last edited by JayM on Sun May 26, 2019 5:55 am, edited 5 times in total.
Around 370g (a skosh under a pound) of pork shoulder, cut into 1 inch or larger cubes ( bought a piece of pork shoulder that was around 738g and used half for the curry and the rest for today's soup)
1 medium white onion, peeled and very coarsely chopped
1 entire head (bulb) garlic, peeled and minced, around 12 cloves (I didn't count 'em)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
2 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 to 1 inch cubes
1 handful of long beans (asparagus beans) cut into (roughly) 2 inch lengths
1 good-sized Chinese (Napa) cabbage, sliced crosswise into (roughly) 1 inch slices
6 whole, fresh siling espadas (sword peppers) or substitute mild jalapeños
Around 1 1/2 tablespoon each of Mixed herbs and Pizza Seasoning dried herb mixtures (Pizza Seasoning is basically the same as Italian Seasoning only with less tarragon and more oregano)
4 large pork stock cubes
3 large chicken stock cubes
3 tsp MSG
2.75 liters of water
1 tbsp Maggi Liquid Seasoning (somewhat similar to Worcestershire sauce or brown sauce)
Put the pork, peppers, stock cubes and MSG into a large pot and add the water. Cover and heat until it starts to boil then reduce heat until bubbles are slightly breaking on the surface. Skim the scum off the top if desired (I usually don't bother.) Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pork is cooked and tender, about 45 minutes. (Don't eat the peppers, unless of course you want to. They're mainly there to add just a slight "zip" to the soup.)
Add all remaining ingredients, raise heat until it just begins to boil, reduce heat as above, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes and carrots are tender: about another 45 minutes.
Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. Allow to cool to edible temperature and serve in bowls over some cooked rice.
