Ask the A2K cooks!

great minds and all that - I bought a spicy Hungarian sausage yesterday to add to a Cincy chili I'm planning to make

next time - put aside a cup or so - add a pinch of good cinnamon, cook for 20/30 min and give it a try. I find it adds a nice hit of heat rather than dessertiness.

here is an interesting Chinese soup using cinnamon (you can sub venison nicely for the beef) http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/chinese-cinnamon-beef-noodle-soup-133034

my turn to ask again

I have a beautiful little chicken that I'd like to cook up whole with tomatoes and something

I was looking at Spanish-influenced but the recipes all seem to call for chicken pieces.

who's holding a good recipe - or ingredient combo suggestions?

nothing beats a good roast chicken.
let the chicken come to room temp. Seasonings are your choice but we always liked garlic turmeric and salt in an evoo n butter paste, and rub it in the meat.
wrap the drummies in lunimun fawl and roast at 475 for 10 min per pound. Remove th fawl with about 15 min left Itll be the juiciest, maroonest. Fresh tmaters served in an aged balsamic are great.
Make cornbread

so separately? I can do that.

no cornbread. still have an icky taste in my mouth from cornbread an acquaintance served us in September. but maybe a different corn side dish

maybe baked corn pudding? need to look up some recipes

corn/chicken/tomatoes ... def a good combo

https://spinachtiger.com/pennsylvania-dutch-baked-corn-pudding/

maybe

looking for a savory version

I think this is the one I'm going to try.

http://benandbirdy.blogspot.ca/2013/08/savory-corn-pudding.html


Savory Corn Pudding
Serves 4 to 6

This recipe is adapted from Deborah Madison’s absolutely beautiful, useful book Local Flavors—a book I turn to constantly at this time of year, when I often have lots of this or that particular, fresh vegetable, without a clear sense of how it’s going to become dinner. She always helps it become dinner. I have mentioned this before, but I can’t say enough good things about the corn zipper, which has turned a job I used to hate (stripping kernels from cob) into one that I almost kind of like.

1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
6 ears sweet corn, cut from the cob (3 cups or so of kernels. DM also has you scrape and reserve the “milk” from the cobs, and add this to the egg mixture, but I forgot.)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cream, evaporated milk, or whole milk (I used cream)
1 cup grated or crumbled cheese (I used a sharp cheddar)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon chopped marjoram (or another herb of your liking)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
Freshly ground pepper
Paprika

1. Heat the oven to 350 and butter a 6-cup baking dish.
2. Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat and sauté the onion until it’s soft and lightly colored, about 10 minutes.
3. Now add the corn to the pan and sauté another minute or two, until it is just tender (DM has you boil it separately in water, I’m not sure why).
4. Beat the cream into the eggs, then stir in the corn and onion, the cheese, the herbs, and the salt and pepper.
5. Pour the mixture into the dish, shake a few dashes of paprika over the top, and bake until puffed and golden, around 45 minutes. Serve warm.

never liked corn pudding --too damn sweet. EVERYTHING pa Dutch is ppretty much too sweet. I go and shop at the Amish country stores an they sell lotsa sugar in huge 50 lb bags. They also have the best Ementhaler Cheeses and thick cut Bacons

The Savory Corn Pudding sounds really good. Ima have ta save that one and schlep it to the Queen Bee .
Notice the diff between this one and the above Pa "Dutchy" thing, Tbsp of sugar to can of creamed corn (second largest (by Weight) ingredient is corn syrup).
When Mrs F mkes polenta she always adds a tsp of muustard

I made the (not exactly to the recipe but pretty darn close) savory corn pudding to have with the roast chicken.

Good good good.

Had a small side salad. Next time I think I'll do something spinachy or maybe braised leeks.

Funnily (?) I had mustard with my savory pudding

I think I'm going to dive into making this

https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/11/green-bean-casserole-with-crispy-onions/

I was in my 40's before I had the canned/canned/canned version (and I liked it!)

trying to imagine how good a non-can version of this could be

she's right - it's really a gratin so yeah, doing it

We hd a bumper crop of chestnuts this year. Our neighbor are being "gifted" with baskets of the damn things. They need to be picked or collected immwdiately upon falling or else we have a deer herd there scarfing them up. (These are the eatin chestnuts not the"horse chestnuts)

Roasted them at 450 F (remember to cut an X into them or they will explode in the oven),
Any really great chestnut filling recipes ?? How about desserts?
I need to hear from chestnut lovers.

I like to brine a chicken before roasting. I absolutely love a good roast chicken but I hate the mess it makes in the oven. So I've started experimenting with sous vide. So far chicken breast and duck breast have turned out wonderfully moist and flavorful. Next I want to try chicken legs.

you have the whole pot or the immersion thing?
We never bought one but it seems that souse vide can also mean a pressure cooking of browned chicken parts or wild game. Whenever we get a pheasant shot we brown the parts and then pressure cook it and its wonderful, just like a restaurant

That would be (in French) a poulet rôti saumuré.

I suppose, you can do it which English-speaking American chicken, too:

I got an inexpensive immersion unit — no WiFi or anything like that. The technique is similar to pressure cooking in that you have a steady temperature which really penetrates to the inside. It's just that for certain tender cuts of meat you don't need temps that high. The one drawback is that you need to sear the meat after the bath — not a biggie but it does make for more cleanup. But a nice strip steak perfectly done at 129º is worth the work.

I bought one of those TV based Induction cooking plates for the RV two years ago. I LOVE that thang. It gives us such accurate temps that e can do exact soft and hard candy temps without standing around and stirring all the time.
Some of these gizmos are worth it (xcept a stupid rice cooker, the only other thing we found to do with that thing is extract oil from lavendar) and then you have to really scrub the lavendar smell off before you can make a sticky rice to us with seafood

that looks more like a Truthahn than a poulet.

Jeez — I guess it's been viral for over a year but I've just become aware of the Canadian-made Instant Pot:


This was the article that alerted me to the unit and its popularity:
NYT

At this point I don't see myself running out to get one, but that's because I can do most of the jobs with gear that I already have. But the convenience and efficiency is attractive.

is it an induction cooker? Usually only induction can get close temp controls in electricity. Although it is less efficient

My friends all have one now. The key is the combo of pressure cooker and slow cooker. Makes things really, really fast.

Cycloptichorn