Whats cooking? **** Making something fine and fancy?** Just plain good? Show us!

[Borealhiker]

Made smoked and dried "Nußschinken". It comes from the upper front part of the hind leg, number 16 in this diagram:
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Meat prepared for curing for two weeks in vacuum:
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After curing:
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Trussed and hung up to dry and equilibrate for a few days:
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Then four cold smoking sessions spread over four days, eight hours of smoke each time. After that, dry the ham some more (about a week), re-seal in vacuum and ripen in the fridge for a month. Finally, hung up for a few days more to dry:
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And the finished product. It's tasty. Very tasty
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Wow! Nice work! Cold smoking is no walk in the park. That looks beautiful. What type wood and smoker did you you use for smoking? Pellets?

 

[Michi]

Wow! Nice work! Cold smoking is no walk in the park. That looks beautiful. What type wood and smoker did you you use for smoking? Pellets?

Thank you!

I have a Bradley digital smoker (4 racks). But, for cold smoking, I'm just using it as an enclosure. I have one of those stainless steel wire mesh snakes for cold smoking. I use the snake with sawdust or pellets, depending on what I have around. This time, I used maple to smoke the ham. But oak or beech would be suitable, too.

 

[Lars]

Kålpølser. Danish smoked pork(and sometimes beef too) sausages and a broccoli and green bean sauté with cashews and almonds, plus a cheeky dollop of Colman's mustard.

 

[MarcelNL]

Chicken General Tso;

 

[Lars]

First attempt at sourdough pizza. Fingers crossed for tomorrow..

 

[KDSDeluxe]

Gnocchi with creamy, spicy gorgonzola sauce with baby spinach, chopped walnuts and fresh figs from a friends tree the figs have neutralized the intense spiciness of the gorgonzola, perfect!

 

[Edge]

I've never seen figs used in a dish before. And I love figs. That looks yummy.

 

[deltaplex]

Gnocchi with creamy, spicy gorgonzola sauce with baby spinach, chopped walnuts and fresh figs from a friends tree the figs have neutralized the intense spiciness of the gorgonzola, perfect!

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This might be the richest dish I've seen posted, did your beverage pairing have the ability to cut through it?

 

[KDSDeluxe]

This might be the richest dish I've seen posted, did your beverage pairing have the ability to cut through it?

Thanks alot! There was just water. For me one of the best drinks there is!

 

[MarcelNL]

a well aged Belgian Geuze?

 

[KDSDeluxe]

a well aged Belgian Geuze?

Is it belgian beer? I live in the near by aken and i really like belgian strong dark beer.

 

[KDSDeluxe]

This might be the richest dish I've seen posted, did your beverage pairing have the ability to cut through it?

Edit: I drank nutmeg white wine while cooking, which also went into the gorgonzola sauce. But the most of it went into me

 

[MarcelNL]

Geuze is a typically sour beer made by mixing old and young Lambiek, IMO only palatable when properly aged.

 

[parbaked]

Spaghettini carbonara

Served with roasted fennel, salad and focaccia from Liguria Bakery.

Guanciale from The Fatted Calf butcher shop.

 

[mengwong]

What’s the trick to getting the guanciale to soften and crisp without shrinking too much from the render? Is it to start with big chunks that become small chunks?

 

[MarcelNL]

What’s the trick to getting the guanciale to soften and crisp without shrinking too much from the render? Is it to start with big chunks that become small chunks?

Using plenty is my trick ;-)
Last time I got my hands on good guanciale I made strips rather than chunks, seemed to work well.
I guess that if you want them real crispy you cannot avoid rendering much of the fat, I used a hot carbon steel pan for the exercise and ended up with tender strips with crispy outside.

 

[deltaplex]

What’s the trick to getting the guanciale to soften and crisp without shrinking too much from the render? Is it to start with big chunks that become small chunks?

If you have a convection oven (even a regular or toaster over will probably work) then you can keep it on the thicker side and bake it at high temp, 200+C, and I think you'll get close to what you're looking for. Just keep an eye on it because it goes fast from "perfect" to overdone relatively quickly. I tend to pull it a little earlier than I think I need to.

 

[deltaplex]

Or sous vide it at low temp first and then crisp it; all depends on what your desired end result is.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Breakfast.

 

[Michi]

What’s the trick to getting the guanciale to soften and crisp without shrinking too much from the render? Is it to start with big chunks that become small chunks?

It'll shrink somewhat during rendering. The trick is to render the fat at a fairly low temperature. Medium-low is what you are aiming for. Let it sit in the pan so that it just bubbles lazily. That way, you get most of the fat rendered without drying out the lean parts. Cutting the lardons a little larger than you normally would avoids ending up with small and hard chunks of guanciale.

Don't fry it until it gets crispy. For carbonara, you want the fat rendered, but the meat still soft and not dry, without any crispness.

 

[Lars]

Sourdough pizza #1 was pretty good, but not without room for improvement. Topped with tomato sauce, prosciutto cotto, mozzarella, aged havarti, broccoli, red onion and pul biber.

 

[Edge]

Breakfast.

What is all of that? I think I see peanut butter on the left bread, and some type of meat and cheese on the right side.
But can you tell me what all is on it, including condiments?

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

What is all of that? I think I see peanut butter on the left bread, and some type of meat and cheese on the right side.
But can you tell me what all is on it, including condiments?

Peanut butter? Now that would've been interesting indeed but alas that's stone ground mustard and mayo.

Scrambled eggs, sliced ham, and melted Swiss cheese on a bun.

 

[KDSDeluxe]

Quick Isas testing. Puttanesca.

 

[mengwong]

I made toum today that turned into an aioli. No photos, I ate it all before I could use my camera. Did it in a tiny coffee grinder spice blender thing. Mildly surprised it even worked!

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Chilled noodles with shrimp and sesame dressing. Scallion pancakes. Spicy beef stir fry.

The noodles were good but the dressing was a touch off. Not sure what it was, just a hint of bitterness but still good. Overall a nice meal and the wife loves the pancakes and attacked the beef.

 

[Borealhiker]

Chilled noodles with shrimp and sesame dressing. Scallion pancakes. Spicy beef stir fry.

The noodles were good but the dressing was a touch off. Not sure what it was, just a hint of bitterness but still good. Overall a nice meal and the wife loves the pancakes and attacked the beef.

Well….that beef looks absolutely delicious and attackable. Not sure how you made your sesame dressing. There are tons of variations. But I find that sesame, especially tahini has some bitterness to it.Doesn’t look like you used tahini though. But I think that’s why all variations have some sort of sweetener added. Really nice meal tho.

 

[Michi]

Thanks to inspiration from @boomchakabowwow, Aji de Gallina:

This turned out really nice, I enjoyed it a lot. Definitely not summer food though. It's filling and warming, perfect for a winter dinner.

 

[daddy yo yo]

Murghi aur masoor dal (Bombay-style chicken with red split lentils), Peelay chaaval (aromatic yellow rice), Gujerati sem (Gujerati-style green beans), Baigan ka raita (yogurt with eggplant):

 

[ch_br]

Murghi aur masoor dal (Bombay-style chicken with red split lentils), Peelay chaaval (aromatic yellow rice), Gujerati sem (Gujerati-style green beans), Baigan ka raita (yogurt with eggplant):

That looks great, do you happen to have a recipe to share for this?

Indian food is one of my top 5 favorite cuisines.. And its great for lots of steel useage!