kazhound's Profile
Tricks you figured out in the kitchen and thought 'good one'!!!
turns out a lot of manuals are online these days. Some times I find them and save an electronic copy for storage and chuck the paper one. (though I always seem to find them fresh when I need them, even when I've got the paper one in the drawer)
I want to love my slow cooker, can you help?
I love my slow cooker! I like making lamb curry in it
I use this recipe with the following modifications:
http://www.food.com/recipe/indian-lamb-curry-27864
I cut the meat into bigger pieces, use fresh ginger, minced, instead of paste. instead of the green chili, I used a jalapeno one time, some red pepper flakes another, and used the TJ diced tomatoes with green chili the third instead of plain diced tomatoes, they were all good. I also use like 1 cup of broth instead of 4 cups water. I also do only the first 4 steps in a
skillet, then put the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker.
i've also made this recipe a few times, and really liked it (despite the fact that it is just a "dump" recipe:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/12/crockpot-chicken-makhani-indian-butter.html
Other great successes in the slow cooker were applesauce, improving ribs that had come out of the smoker too early, and a veggie-like ratatouille concoction.
Homemade Ricotta Failure
I use the microwave for this all the time - the first time I did it, I used a thermometer until the milk reached the right range of temperature (putting it back in for 30 more seconds if too cool), and now I know how long it takes in my microwave on high. It's so fast and has so much less clean up (I hate hate hate heating milk on the stove top). I use white vinegar generally, though I have used lemon too.
This is the recipe I follow:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/how-to-make-fresh-ricotta-fast-easy-homemade-cheese-the-food-lab-recipe.html
And this is the long discussion of the technique:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/02/how-to-make-fresh-ricotta-fast-easy-homemade-cheese-the-food-lab.html
Have you ever tried to cook quinoa? How do you cook and serve it? What recipe do you like the best?
we just made quinoa tonight - we make it quite often. It's delicious if you rinse it and get the proportions right:
rinse 1 cup quinoa in a strainer and put in pot with 1 3/4 cups of water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a very low simmer, cover and let sit for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes, fluff and you're ready to go.
oh, also if your quinoa still has the coating on it you'll need to soak it. Also, red quinoa can be a bit gritty, so we stick with the yellow variety.
Catania Cafe on Atlantic Ave
ok, last post I swear unless there's a downturn, but this week we went again and I think it was the best meal yet - the chicken salad was amazing. great dressing, perfectly cooked chicken. the eggplant parm was one of the best examples I've had of its kind, with those delicious caramelized bits and the meatballs were awesome. the only thing I've had there that I didn't love was a sandwich.
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Catania
193 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201
What to do with fennel fronds?
exactly! i used the stalks, chopped, in place of celery in tuna salad. We hate celery but love fennel.
What to do with fennel fronds?
second this - one of our standby meals is a can of tuna, some diced tomatoes, chopped olives and chopped fennel fronds over pasta.
Your best lentil soup recipe?
I *love* this Red Lentil Soup with Lemon:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/dining/091arex.html
It's best with all the ingredients, but I usually leave out the cilantro just for ease. I also really like it with parsnip in addition to the carrot. I have made this "for the week" and then eaten almost the whole thing myself in one go more than once.
Catania Cafe on Atlantic Ave
seriously - we keep going back too! today we tried the farcita. yum! just don't try to go when you're in a real rush.
vegetarian crock pot recipes?
for a gluten free vegetarian friend i once made ratatouille in the slow cooker and served it over polenta. so yummy!
Catania Cafe on Atlantic Ave
ok, one more update. We went back tonight and I swear, it was even better. We had an arancino, the arrabbiata, the mozzarella salad and a side of meatballs. I was totally blown away. The arancino brought me back to sicily, and the meatballs were among the best I've ever had (and 1000x better than Brucie, which is the last place I got a side of meatballs). The pasta was perfectly done. The cheese in the salad was amazing. We ate there and everything just comes out as it's done. Totally informal eating but so so so good!
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Catania
193 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Bread Machine but no Bread Flour...
this recipe is great - we make it a lot in our mini-Zo, and it calls for all purpose, not bread flour: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sandwich-bread-for-the-mini-zo-bread-machine-recipe
(we sometimes substitute whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose)
Catania Cafe on Atlantic Ave
Wow, we just went here yesterday (my husband for the third time). This place is really amazing, and I can't believe it opened up so close to us. There's a sign on the counter that says 'All Homemade' but I didn't really appreciate it until I talked to the guy behind the counter. They make basically *everything*. All of those amazing and intricate pastries, all the bread - they even preserve their own tuna. The guy was saying that they take a whole day and just make a giant batch of it, that it's a load of work, but so worth it for the taste. I have to agree. We had the tuna salad, and it was delicious. $9 for a really big salad with that awesome tuna, green beans, an egg, tomato and fresh scallion shavings. so good! We also had one of the savory pastries, the caponata and my husband had some pasta bolognese. I thought the pasta was good but not great (not as al dente as I like) but my husband had the almond creme pasta last time and said it was incredible.
We were just in Sicily in June, and it's so great to have this place open! Apparently, everyone working there is from Catania, and they all pitch in to make the various items made from scratch. Impressive and delicious.
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Catania
193 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201
It's raining cucumbers!
this refrigerator pickle recipe is easy and always goes over great! http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/easy-refrigerator-pickles-10000001646440/
i love the turmeric in it.
pork chop on the grill
i usually just rub them with some fresh thyme from my garden, salt and pepper 'em and throw them on the grill sometimes i'll drizzle them with olive oil and maybe a squeeze of lemon.
Canned Salmon?
I had the same exact situation, and have almost used mine up almost exclusively with this recipe, which is so good: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Deviled-Salmon-Cakes-107546
I just substituted regular breadcrumbs I had in the freezer. We really loved how they turned out, and ate way more than I expected!
Veggie Burger Fixins, Toppings?!?
avocado! cheese! sauteed onions! i also really like ketchup. maybe some sprouts too.
been to a Restaurant Associates wedding or event?
thanks for your response! I'll definitely post back here after the event (should the museum work out), as I have been surprised by how hard it is to find reviews about such a major player.
been to a Restaurant Associates wedding or event?
hi! I've recently gotten engaged and am figuring out this whole wedding planning thing. Our top choice for venues (the Brooklyn Museum) uses RA as their exclusive vendor. The whole thing is definitely not cheap (!) and I'm a bit nervous about not having a choice as to food provider. Everything looks good and their rep seems very helpful, but has anyone experienced their catering first hand? I mean I know that event catering isn't usually that good when all is said and done anyway, but I'd love to hear about any pleasant surprises or disasters...
thanks so much!!
under-used treasure or garbage? what ingredient do you think people are wasting?
so many people don't want the tops of their beets that you can get a giant bag of greens for free at the NYC farmers' markets! They usually have a big box of them. yum! I've used them in curries, just stir fried with garlic, in borscht and other soups, plus the stalks alone and raw are a pretty good substitute for celery with hummus!
What's the best place to buy baklava?
I prefer the baklava at Orient Grocery across the street, especially the cashew kind! sooo yummy!
Fresh ricotta ideas (no sweets, please)
not exactly what you're looking for perhaps, but we *love* this ricotta bread recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ricotta-bread/detail.aspx
Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill - Restaurant and Bar
I've had a couple of girls nights at the chip shop on atlantic. gotta be in the mood for beer and stodgy food, but it's the best. Especially when they have old speckled hen on cask along with their wild mushroom mac n cheese or fish n chips.
Passover Chocolate flourless cake (or better suggestion welcome)
i made this one a few years ago:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-I/Detail.aspx
and my mother has requested it on her birthday ever since. As is probably true with all of these recipes, the quality of the chocolate is probably the most important thing.
Best red sauce Italian restaurant in Brooklyn?
I second Fiorentino's! I may be biased since I grew up going there but I went earlier in the week for lunch and it did not disappoint. The zuppa de clams (red sauce, no pasta) was incredible, and my boyfriend's eggplant parm was a fine example of its kind. The fried zucchini was flaky and perfect and the coffees were delicious. Others got cafe romanos, and each had very generous anisette pours. The whole thing was so yummy that I ate too much and had to take a nap!
Green tomato ideas?
I made a green tomato pie last week - omitted the apples because I wanted to see what the tomatoes tasted like on their own. I liked it so much that a few days ago I had company, so I stewed the tomatoes (peeled, cored and sliced) in a saucepan with a little sugar, some fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, nutmeg, cinnamon and cornstarch, then baked that as filling on puff pastry into green tomato tartlets. I served with apricot brandy whipped cream and chocolate ice cream. One of the best things I've made recently! I only wish I had more green tomatoes.
theresa's - what took me so long? ;)
the orange ricotta pancakes (only served on the weekend) are great!
Rosewater Crab Feast sold out - other suggestions?
my friends and i were looking forward to this but didn't act fast enough. where should we go instead to scratch the itch?
Wat Thai Temple
Gourmet magazine this month has an article about Thai places in LA and it mentions Wat Thai - is this just poor fact finding on their part? Or have I missed the reopening? I don't dare to hope!
help! upscale ethnic birthday dinner in brooklyn
thanks for the suggestion - I've always been curious about that place. I love the sardines they sell at the antic. sounds like another good fallback, at least...
