The Cantina Cuisine – food talk, recipes and more

These I would want to try! Walnuts are great, especially mixed with pecans... I love the taste, because unlike Brazil nuts, Walnuts don't taste like pure fat. It's not like fatty nuts I don't like, for example Macadamia nuts roasted and coated with cocoa (cinnamon and cilantro) I love too, I really recommend these, they taste heavenly...

Can't wait to shovel these in my mouth xD

 

Woah @NinjaRen! Your mother knows how to create cookies! Could be a masterclass confectioner.

.. and another applause for @Lock_S_Foils who - as new Master of Vanillekipferl - seems to fulfill all requirements to get a lifelong visa for all Austrian "Christkindl"-Markets

 

Roast Duck Recipe - Julia's Album

Used this recipe tonight for the New Year dinner, along with my much-loved collard greens. It was my first time cooking with duck, but it turned out really well, and now it's officially on the New Year dinner menu! (Along with my much-loved collard greens, which are also on the Thanksgiving menu.) Mom still did the black-eye peas though!





Bacon-and-Bourbon Collards Recipe | MyRecipes

 

My brother-in-law is a big hunter. Over Christmas weekend he gave me ground wild boar, ground antelope, plus antelope and axis deer steaks and boar and antelope ribs. I'm going to be having some fun this month! Funny I just noticed this board because I've been pouring the net tonight for interesting ideas.

 

Spicy Katsu Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffle sandwich with a 5/6 cheese bacon mac (Pecorino/Parmesean, American, Cheddar, Asiago, and Camembert.)

This was a success! The chicken and waffles were like by the couple that I cooked them for (my friends) as well as my parents, and the bacon mac did its job. I'm not entirely satisfied with the bacon mac, since I'm still chasing the "high" the experience I had with it gave me, but I feel like I'm a step closer than before. I think next time I need to cut down on the camembert even more, and add just a pinch more spice to balance out the extra cheese.

This meal was stressful to make because (like usual) I promised to deliver this to my friends at a certain time, and I failed to do so. They were fine and didn't care too much, but I still hate having to tell them that they need to wait another 20-30 minutes because of my poor time management. But I'm slowly getting better at this.
It was funny to see who liked what part of the meal. My dad and one of my friends loved the chicken, claiming it to be perfectly spiced. My mom, while liking the chicken, thought that the waffle was the actual star of the meal. My friend's husband (aka my other friend) seemed to enjoy it all. I found the combo delightful. It reminded me of a Chik-Fil-A meal that's been combined with different other things on the menu. It had the sweetness of the Chicken Minis, the doughiness of the Chicken Biscuit, and a flare reminiscent of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. All it needed was an Arnold Palmer...or a tall glass of milk. Next time.

The unseen star of this meal is my mother aka the world's best sous chef. She grated, mixed, separated, packed, cleaned, and even finished cooking the chicken while I went over to my friends' house to finish broiling the mac and cheese. And when I got back there were barely any dishes I needed to finish up with! My mom absolutely made this meal, and I would have been lost without her.

Overall, I'll make this again hopefully someday soon - maybe the next time my sister and Brother-In-Law are in town. But when I do, I'm NOT giving out any dinner time estimations. I want to be able to enjoy cooking the separate parts!

Recipes used:
Sweet Potato Waffles Recipe | Alton Brown | Food Network
Chicken Katsu Sandwiches Recipe | Bon Appétit (bonappetit.com)
Five Cheese Skillet Mac and Cheese | Love and Olive Oil

 

I made the above recipes on Sunday. The spicy soft tofu stew with beef turned out decent, but not what I wanted. My family ended up putting it over rice, and I think that made it far too similar to mapo tofu for us. Combine that with how the flavors didn't go where I needed them to, and I'd recommend just making mapo tofu instead of that recipe. Also, even if the recipe doesn't ask for it, ADD SALT.

Babish's recipe worked out very well though! I tried the pan-fried version, and my parents loved it. The rice cakes are so gluttonous that trying to par-boil them actually backfired majorly. A small few were salvaged by rinsing them off before putting them in the wok, but most had to be thrown away.
The texture was very much like Mitarashi Dango before any sweet sauce is added, and I ilke that aspect. Adding the sauce Babish uses and the sesame seeds ended up confusing my taste buds because I was expecting Dango, not some likely spicy rice cake instead. My parents really liked it though (especially my mom), so I'll make it again sometime soon.

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Mexican Hot Chocolate!

https://www.isabeleats.com/mexican-hot-chocolate/

I modified the above recipe to match the proportions on the back of the Abuelita's Mexican Chocolate package. Overall it turned out a heck of a lot better than my Champurrado attempt! My dad tried it and like liked it, but thinks this version is too sweet. I agree with him. Next time I'll use the original amount of sugar instead of the doubled amount. That will focus the flavors on the heat and the chocolate. That will also help with the breakfast I want this to work with in my head - Rice, Miso Soup*, scrambled eggs, oatmeal** and Mexican hot chocolate as a dessert. Yes, it's a lot, but once I start Student Teaching and head back to the gym (and do two-a-days...), I feel like this meal would be a great day-starter and an awesome way to practice preparing multiple dishes at the same time as well as cooking the night before if need be.

Upcoming Cooking Opportunities:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - I have a solid recipe and have been hankering to make these again. I'd like to make them this Thursday, but I think waiting a few weeks will be better...

Harley Quinn Breakfast Sandwiches - I actually made these on Sunday. I always want to make them two days in a row, but I promised myself I'd wait until my sister visits to make them again. Who knows, maybe I'll try to teach her.

Spicy Katsu Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffles - I'm also waiting until my sister and Brother-in-law are in town so I can impress them with this. I even know what to do with the leftover egg yolks! (I tried making scrambled eggs with them last time...big mistake...)

Lord help me if all three cooking opportunities fall on the same weekend...

*I usually use tofu, but I'm thinking about simmering fish as well. I've always wanted to add Japanese pumpkin, but that may take more effort than it's worth. We'll see. It depends on the eggs.
**If time allows, I'd flambe some bananas and/or blueberries as well.

 

Can’t go wrong with chicken tiki masala. Served with garlic naan and hummus. Yum!

 

I made cereal

 

@Embo and His Pet Anooba hmmmm.....I have you down as a Captain Crunch kind of a guy....am I close?

 

no, I eat an offbrand version of cheerios called toasted o's because it has 4 less grams of sugar

 

Wow, toasted O's......you got me on that one @Embo and His Pet Anooba

I am a Bran Flakes kind of a guy, yeah I know real exciting huh?

 

Personally im a special K original type guy. People confuse me as a Special K extra protein but that isn’t quite me.

 

Just made an Elvis Presley sandwich with applewood bacon and brandy-flambeed bananas. It turned out really well! ...which it should have done, given it's bacon, peanut butter, bananas and oatmeal bread. The applewood bacon was leftover bacon from the Harley Quinn egg sandwiches a week and change ago. I've been wanting to make this sandwich for a bit, and after some inspiration last night, I decided to bite the bullet. I used some of the bacon grease to cook fry - and eventually flambé - the bananas. The resulting flame was larger, stronger, and hotter than anything I had seen previously. For a moment I was genuinely terrifited that I was going to burn down the house! But once I took it off the burner (I was rushing, and NEVER rush when flames are involved) things calmed down. The brandy didn't overpower the bananas (I attribute that to the bacon grease and brandy clashing) and added a nice finish.

Eventually I'd like to move my way up to bacon jam, preferably a fruit-based one. I'm searching for blackberry bacon jam recipes, but there really aren't any. Blueberry bacon jam may be my next best choice. Blueberries and bananas go better together than bananas and blackberries usually do, so it may be for the best.


As an extra thing, a week or so ago my mom brought home this really great cheddar cheese, and I now understand the nut-and-cheese combination. This cheddar goes phenomenally with lightly salted almonds. There have been days where it was the first thing I wanted to eat in the morning! I've semi-joked about wanting to make a sandwich with the cheese, some almonds, a little piece of wine-salami, and those crunchy bread bits (which I actually learned this morning are called Crostini). I'll probably do that some day, but the Elvis Presley is enough for now.

 

I ate a cheese stick

 

lol, i think that really does describe everyone from 15 to 25, just not giving a crap about what they eat, and going for what they think tastes good and that's fast.

 

True. Im 18 and can confirm lol. I actually had pollo asada tacos I made yesterday. They were good. I had some chopped cabbage and chile verde on them. So yummy!

 

It depends on the person, but sort of? I cooking in (relative) earnest when I was 15. I started with scrambled eggs and French toast, and when I got to college I was baking candied bacon and cookies in my dorm's oven. When I got my own apartment in college I started cooking for both meals and for fun. I have friends who have had serious baking skills since high school, and I have other friends who can barely cook at all. It really just depends on what someone wants to do with food.

For you younger Cantina members who want to learn to cook, it's best to do so while you're still at home, or if you're back at home for the supper or quarantine. You have free access to kitchenware and spices you probably wouldn't otherwise, you ideally have someone to help guide you through some of the skills that you're not sure about, and you have free taste testers.

Start small, like with scrambled or boiled eggs and different types of sandwiches. Then move to slightly larger things, like baked goods for your classes. Next, work on a family meal you eat weekly/monthly. Then work on your date meals. And then reach for the stars! No one is asking you to be a chef, but potential partners love someone who can cook, and it's just a good skill for independent people to know anyways.

When you try out new recipes, give yourself two to three times the amount of time needed. Even if it seems easy to do, you'll be thankful later. Don't try out new recipes on guests unless you're SURE that they don't mind and it's not an important meal. My sister and I have a bad habit of this, and it's best for you to learn from our mistakes.

 

did you just say bacon, bananas, grease and peanut butter all in the same sentence......??? I’M IN