Food Pr0n!

[Wizzard419]

Did she make them straight coffee or was it coffee and dairy (and sugar) in the gelatin? I've had a sweet coffee and milk gelatin at a Thai place, and it was good. If it didn't have dairy I think it might have too harsh a flavor for the dish.

[Amy]

Did she make them straight coffee or was it coffee and dairy (and sugar) in the gelatin? I've had a sweet coffee and milk gelatin at a Thai place, and it was good. If it didn't have dairy I think it might have too harsh a flavor for the dish.

I'll have to ask him. He had a recipe that he was following out of a magazine. He has a few dishes that he makes well, Nelson's Golden Glow-type chicken among them, but he excels at anything dessert-ish His wife constantly worries about his cholesterol levels since his body chemistry is about 50% butter by this point in his life! Still skinny as a rail though

[Wizzard419]

Ah, you don't really have to ask, if it looked like a cup of coffee with cream in it then he added dairy.

[Amy]

Ah, you don't really have to ask, if it looked like a cup of coffee with cream in it then he added dairy.

No, the jello part was all dark, a really pretty chocolatey brown...I'm thinking it was probably dairy free on the bottom. But when they ate it, most of them chopped the jello part up with the whipping cream that was on the top.

[Wizzard419]

Yep, that was straight coffee (possibly with sugar). Which is nice if you drink your coffee black, but that would be way too harsh for people that like dairy.

Anyway weekend update!

First, brownies.




Stuffed Mushrooms (filled with duxelles)



Peking duck, which is a 2 day adventure since I have to scald and inflate the duck (with an air compressor) the day before. Since I don't have a 600 year old wood fired oven, I borrowed my neighbor's smoke gun to add some flavor while cooking.



Since I had a lot of rice left over, I decided that I would make rice pudding as well.

[Amy]

Peking duck, which is a 2 day adventure since I have to scald and inflate the duck (with an air compressor) the day before. Since I don't have a 600 year old wood fired oven, I borrowed my neighbor's smoke gun to add some flavor while cooking.[/img]

If you didn't pop over to DL for business lunches I would guess you live next door to my brother ~ he would have something like that to lend out but he lives in N. Cali...
Please tell me you are kidding about inflating the duck with an air compressor That sounds like an awful step for a cooking process

[Wizzard419]

Nope, it's actually quite a lot easier than the old method. The only drawback was having to buy a second nozzle so that things are sanitary.

The reason you have to inflate the skin of the duck is so that it loosens from the meat. Doing that and the scalding (I actually use a rice wine, soy, and honey mix for more flavor) make the skin crispy.

One thing I've wanted to try to make is the omlete, but I can't get duck eggs unless I want to drive up to westminster to get them. Traditionally you get a whole, multi-course meal out of a single duck (a soup made from the bones, an omlete cooked with the fat that comes off during cooking, and the duck in the pancakes).

While most places require you order the duck at least 24 hours in advance, the asian market has a peking duck fast food place where you could pick one up/get a single meal.

Oh, if you have an asian market near you and you need something like hoisin, asian noodles, etc. go there over the normal supermarket. For what I pay for a tiny jar at the supermarket I can get a huge bottle for the same price. Same with coconuts, limes, and cilantro at the mexican market.

[Amy]

...Oh, if you have an asian market near you and you need something like hoisin, asian noodles, etc. go there over the normal supermarket. For what I pay for a tiny jar at the supermarket I can get a huge bottle for the same price. Same with coconuts, limes, and cilantro at the mexican market.

Thanks for the laugh this morning! We live in the country I suppose we could have really, really fresh duck out of the creek, but we prefer watching them over eating them

[Wizzard419]

I just get the duck at the supermarket, but don't write off not having ethnic markets so fast. If you've got immigrants anywhere there probably is a market within a reasonable distance.

[Amy]

I just get the duck at the supermarket, but don't write off not having ethnic markets so fast. If you've got immigrants anywhere there probably is a market within a reasonable distance.

There is a big Hispanic population in the city that is about 45 minutes away from us. Not a lot of Asian immigrants around us. It was a big write-up in the local paper's food column when a Thai restaurant opened recently. Truthfully as long as I can find good Italian food, I don't care!

[Wizzard419]

Ah, I use to not go to the ethnic markets that often, but when I realized how much better and cheaper the limes were at the mexican market I was hooked. It helps that they are all close, there is a middle eastern, jewish, and an indian market as well but I don't cook those styles as often.

[Wizzard419]

Time for more Pr0n.

Lets start with Valentine's Day

Garlic Toasts topped with proscuitto and mozzarella.




Salad with Roquefort dressing and home made pickled purple onions.



Beef Tenderloin with a pan sauce and garlic mashed potatoes.



Coeur la creme (also known as Bavarian Cream) with a fresh raspberry sauce.






Next it was pizza night so I made a new england style stuffed chicken pizza.





A kona coffee rubbed pulled pork pizza




and a Peking Duck pizza (with leftover duck)



One of the reddest blood oranges of the season with japanese green tea (Tea ceremony style)



And today I had some purple mangosteen, which taste a lot like the pulp inside cacao pods (what they use to make chocolate)

[Amy]

Wow ~ that coeur la creme looks delicicious!
I am intrigued by the stuffed chicken pizza. What sort of spices and cheese do you use? Is there a sauce inside?
Not a coffee fan, but the pulled pork pizza looks tasty. Is that with a bbq sauce? What kind of cheese?
Where do you find purple mangosteen? So it tastes like a bitter chocolate then? Is it oven roasted?

[Wizzard419]

The cheese used in stuffed chicken are mozzarella and ricotta, I think I will use more mozz and more crust on top next time since it wasn't as gooey as I've had in the past. For spices I used just basil and oregano, and the sauce is served on the side rather than inside (to keep it from getting soggy).

You don't taste the coffee as much when it's in the rub, the pizza uses bbq sauce on the crust rather than tomato and I used straight mozz on it but you can also mix in cheddar.

I get the purple mangosteen at the asian market. It doesn't taste like chocolate at all, with cacao plants there is fruit (similar to that) on the inside and it tastes sweet and so forth, but not like chocolate in any way. They cut the pods open, dump out the seeds and fruit, let them ferment for a while, then ship them to candymakers to be roasted, cracked to get the nibs out, grind the nibs and eventually make chocolate.

You don't need to cook mangosteens, they just look that way on the outside because of their tropical climate.

[Amy]

The cheese used in stuffed chicken are mozzarella and ricotta, I think I will use more mozz and more crust on top next time since it wasn't as gooey as I've had in the past. For spices I used just basil and oregano, and the sauce is served on the side rather than inside (to keep it from getting soggy).
You don't taste the coffee as much when it's in the rub, the pizza uses bbq sauce on the crust rather than tomato and I used straight mozz on it but you can also mix in cheddar.
I get the purple mangosteen at the asian market. It doesn't taste like chocolate at all, with cacao plants there is fruit (similar to that) on the inside and it tastes sweet and so forth, but not like chocolate in any way. They cut the pods open, dump out the seeds and fruit, let them ferment for a while, then ship them to candymakers to be roasted, cracked to get the nibs out, grind the nibs and eventually make chocolate.
You don't need to cook mangosteens, they just look that way on the outside because of their tropical climate.

If you ever share recipes, I wouldn't mind having both the pizza recipes
Thanks for the explanation on the mangosteen. I will have to check that out sometime and see if I can find them...maybe in Chicago's Chinatown on my next trip through...