Culinaria: What's for dinner ?

[mtbturtle]

Bought 25 lbs of tomatoes at the Farmers Market. Made chicken cacciatore yesterday and a big pot of tomato soup today will freeze the leftover. Will combine the bought tomatoes with the Amish Paste I'm growing and can basil, garlic tomato sauce tomorrow.
tomato soup by mtb turtle

[mtbturtle]

23Lb (10 from my garden) of tomatoes, handful of basil and head of garlic and a couple of hours - nine pints - basil garlic tomato sauce 2015 by mtb turtle,

[Darby]

Oh man, I remember shelves filled with mason jars (mostly stewed tomatoes and/or tomato sauce). My parents were depression era born, and continued their WWII victory garden well past my college years, so it was a regular staple. Memories. Thx MBT.

[Darby]

Been bored, culinarily speaking, of late. Saw a top rated 1.5 qt Sorbet/Ice Cream machine on sale earlier, so I sprang for it, since my wife and I both adore sorbet (particularly reduced sugar varieties).

First up will be Mango-Lime Sorbet, courtesy of some mango pulp and lime juice that's been cluttering up my freezer all summer, waiting for BBQs that sadly never happened.

After that I'll probably do a coconut milk sorbet, and possibly a sun sugar cherry tomato sorbet.

[Watson]

I'll make the fresh pasta, made to order.

[Darby]

Semolina and water, or flour and egg ?

[Watson]

Just Semolina and water?, or either Semolina or flour and water and egg? I used 2c of flour, 2 eggs and water in the food processor to the right consistency to roll through the paste machine. I don't rest it like I suppose I should.

[Darby]

Flour and egg pasta tastes better than semolina and water, IMO. Props to you for owning a pasta roller.

I havent bought one yet, so I do the former with a rolling pin, when the mood takes me.

[Watson]

I'm on my second hand crank. I had an electric, but it doesn't allow for personal variation and is very frustrating for even the experienced paste maker. Go for a hand crank. I make the paste a bit wet and add flour as I pass it through the roller, folding as required. I haven't done it for a while.

[Darby]

I have a standmixer, so I'd probably end up getting a pasta rolling attachment for that, rather than getting a hand crank. The benefit is having 2 hands free to work with, instead of just one. The disadvantage is that because the mixer is tall, the pasta dangles a lot higher than a hand crank version, which can deform things when you get to the thinner settings.

EDIT: Mango Sorbet finished churning, and is in the freezer. Came out denser than expected, so will add more mango juice to the pulp in my next batch to thin it, and also start factoring in sugar substitutes.

[Darby]

Mango sorbet came out excellent, if a tad sweet.

Not my photo, but it looks exactly the same as this:



Recipe <-- tweaks below

> skip the step that calls for straining the puree (less mess, better yield).
> replace 3/4 cup sugar (too sweet) with 1/2 cup simple syrup.
> replace 1/4 cup water with 1 cup mango juice (stronger flavor, slightly lighter texture).
> increase lime juice from 1 tsp (absurd) to 2-3 tbsp (improved tartness and flavor balance).

Oh, and the 1/2 tsp salt is PERFECT as is.

[Darby]

BTW, this is the unit I bought:



Cuisinart ICE-21 (1.5 qts), for $47+tx (Bed Bath & Beyond, less 20% discount coupon)

Next up will be one of the following:
> Coconut Milk Sorbet
> Kiwi Sorbet with a little microdiced green Thai Birdeye hot chili pepper (from my garden)
> Low sugar Cantelope Sorbet <-- my ultimate goal, as it's my favorite sorbet
> Lemon Sorbet
> Pistachio Ice Cream (a classic custard version, albeit with Truvia)

[Darby]

Dinner tonite will be Split Pea Soup w/Ham, Carrot & Potato ... however, instead of traditional green split peas I'm substituting Red lentils (aka "Egyptian Lentils" in English, or "Masoor Dhal" in Hindi). Later today, if I pass a store with decent bread, I'll grab some and make some garlic crostini to go with it.

Soup without crusty bread is like a day without sunshine.

[TheVat]

"Been bored, culinarily speaking...."

That's difficult to imagine, given your postings here. There's an Ayurvedic thing about red lentils, that they are better for those who don't digestively handle beans/legumes too well. I've had Masoor dhal in restaurants, with a good naan of course, and it went down great.

[Darby]

The important thing about masoor dhal (all dhal actually, but masoor in particular) is to rinse them thoroughly under running water until the water runs clear (I use a lipped strainer set atop a work bowl) ... I usually do that while the liquid I'm going to cook them in slowly comes to a boil. Rinsing them removes debris, unwanted residues (excrement, pesticides, etc) and some of the harder to digest (and sometimes slightly bitter) surface starches.

They taste and digest better that way, with pre-rinsing.

[Watson]

I have a standmixer, so I'd probably end up getting a pasta rolling attachment for that, rather than getting a hand crank. The benefit is having 2 hands free to work with, instead of just one. The disadvantage is that because the mixer is tall, the pasta dangles a lot higher than a hand crank version, which can deform things when you get to the thinner settings.

As seen on Masterchef. The electric one I had was more like a bread maker that you add all the ingredients and turn it on and it goes through its cycles, mixing, resting, extruding. It was very temperamental if the ratios weren't just right.

[Darby]

Yeah, I'd steer clear of extruded pasta models ... that's only reliable with really strong industrial units using brass dies and large batches pushed with hydrolic rams. Little countertop versions are too inconsistent and unreliable for such tasks.

[Watson]

Yes the manual models cut a more consistent pasta, and clean up is nothing. My old electric was such a pain to take apart for cleaning and so much wasted pasta was stuck inside. Just a really bad idea. All this talk, I think it'll be pasta tonight.

[mtbturtle]

Farmers Market day - 5 1/2 lbs potatoes, 4 large leek, 10 cups or so chicken stock - lamb bacon garnish
potato leek soup by mtb turtle,

[mtbturtle]

15 more pounds of tomatoes - only a few green ones left on my vines 9 pints of Salsa (plus an extra pint or so I'll put in chili and 13, 1/2 pints of pizza sauce (plus 2 pints I didn't can in the fridge) - might get another bunch at the Farmers Market Sat, but they seemed almost done last week. I would like to make some bruschetta in a jar and quarts of crush tomato for stews this winter.

Salsa &amp; Pizza Sauce 2015 by mtb turtle,

[TheVat]

Every time I look in here and see delicious soups and sauces, the targeted ad is for marriageable women from overseas. Really don't think their algorithm is too effective.

[Darby]

Every time I look in here and see delicious soups and sauces, the targeted ad is for marriageable women from overseas. Really don't think their algorithm is too effective.

As I type this, my targeted ad is for local tourism in the county near mine.

Guess you have too many mail order bride sites in your browser history. Courtesy flush ? (8-P~~

j/k

[Watson]

How many have you ordered?

[Darby]

So, two more batches with the ICE-21:

First up was a cantelope sorbet, which was too hard and crumbly when fully frozen, and a chunky. Next time I'll try pushing the puree through a medium strainer, and then perhaps a little liquid pectin to improve scoopability. More on pectin below.

Second up was an attempt at Ben & Jerry's "Cherry Garcia" Ice Cream. Cherries are out of season here in the northern hemisphere, so I looked around for substitutes and happened across a jar of whole sour cherry jam at my favorite indo-pak market. It seemed like a no brainer that instead of pitting and cooking cherries in simple syrup, I could just use a ready made jam that already has cooked whole cherries the simple syrup present. So, I got everything nice and cold, then pureed a pint of jam with 3/4 cup whole milk (reserving half a cup of jam for a brief chop, for texture), then added it to the machine with a pint of heavy cream, 3 oz of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, 1/8th tsp salt, and (this was a successful guess) 1 tsp of homemade vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp almond extract, and let it churn, and then transferred it to the freezer. The next day, the the flavor was very good, but the color was a bit like pepto bismol, and texture was a bit too soft ... comparable to room temperature whipped cream cheese. I checked the ingredients on the jam and lo and behold was a large amount of added pectin. Pectin apparently inhibits ice crystal formation. Next time I'll obviously have to cut back on the amount of jam, and supplement with dried sour cherries instead (perhaps partially moistened with a little vodka or white rum).

I'll upload a pic as soon as my device driver unborks ...

[Darby]

As you can see, even at 0.7F (which should be enough to hard freeze) the excess pectin in the jam resulted in a slightly mushy ice cream. Flavor was good, but the texture was definitely off.

[Darby]

I had another backlog of assorted small tomatoes to use up, so I pureed a quart in the food processor, pressed them though a medium strainer, and them used them in a bolognese sauce I made earlier (I supplemented with canned crushed tomatoes), paired with large cheese ravioli and romano. Came out good.

[TheVat]

How many have you ordered?

One is PLENTY.

[Darby]

BTW, the jam I used earlier was from a large 1.85kg jar of this:

[TheVat]

Who let the jam spammer in here?

[Darby]

Shhhhh ... careful, or the Spam Vikings will hear you.