Loving the old thread but it's getting a little unwieldy and it's a new year, so why not start a new one? Previous threads:
Fall 2010 Cooking Thread
Summer 2010 Cooking Thread
Early 2010 Cooking Thead

I can only hope that the OOT community got as many new cookbooks and gadgets as I picked up as gifts this holiday. One thing I picked up was Thomas Keller’s cookbooks: The French Laundry and Ad Hoc at Home

TFL is a little much for me since I don't have cash to buy truffles and foie gras. But Keller wrote Ad Hoc for that reason - simple, obtainable family-style meals. I highly recommend it. It's well-written, with great photos and down-to-earth concepts and tips.

These books arrived at the same time as a massive farm share – pounds upon pounds of onions, potatoes, leeks, beets, and some other things. I haven’t had much to do otherwise so I’ve been cooking my ass off

Brioche
This bread has more butter in it than anything I’ve ever seen. 2.5 sticks for 2 loaves. Om nom nom.
Here's my rosemary bush christmas tree with my brioche:



Brioche grilled cheese with smoked pepper jack and smoked cheddar.





Leek bread pudding with brioche




Sweated leeks over low heat with butter until very soft. Whipped eggs with cream, milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Minced shallots, thyme, and parsley. Toasted brioche cubes.

Combined leeks, toasted brioche, and shallots, thyme and parsley with layers of shredded emmantaler cheese. Poured custard over mixture, let soak for 15 minutes. Poured rest of custard over, baked for 75 minutes.





Beet-apple chutney

Cooked, peeled beets, diced them. Cored, peeled, diced fuji apples. Dijon and grainy mustard.



Mixed them together, cooked with apple juice and apple cider vinegar, jarred up with mint leaves.



Slow-roasted tomatoes - peeled, drizzled with oil and thyme, 6 hours at 200 oven.


Tossed with roasted fingerling potatoes and cilantro pesto


beef jerky - marinated fish sauce, soy sauce, sriracha, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper



"Italian stir-fry"

My recipe:
6 oz thin-sliced bottom round
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley
olive oil
1.5T balsamic vinegar
1 diced onion
1 diced green bell pepper
beer for deglazing
1/2 cup chicken stock

Slice bottom round to 1/4", tenderize with meat mallet on both sides, then slice into bite sized pieces.

mince garlic and parsley together or combine in mortar and pestle, add salt, pepper, balsamic and oil. Add beef to marinade, cover and set aside.

Over low heat, covered, season with salt and pepper sweat onions and peppers, in oil until soft, about 10-15 minutes. Deglaze pan with beer and stock. The dish can be prepared in advance up to this point and set aside.

5 minutes before service, heat vegetables over high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the beef and sautee, stirring constantly, until beef is cooked through, 2-3 minutes.

Serves 2 as a main course or pasta topping.

MmMm

My mom got a flavourwave turbo for her birthday. lol. I think it's infrared and a broiler, with a fan. I'm not a lazy cook so I don't mind using the oven or stove, but I imagine some things may actually be better served with this thing. Thoughts on what dishes would be good to try?

I can't think of anyone better to endorse a cooking product than Mr T.

Please to tell me more about cilantro pesto?

Sounds like rapid cooking, dry heat, perfect for lean roasts i.e. london broil or whole chickens. I don't really know though.

Pesto is really flexible and doesn't have to be basil/pine nut. My formula is basically green herb + nut + garlic + salt + oil. The one in the photo was something like:

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (about 1/2 bunch, leaves only)
1/4 cup toasted almonds
6 cloves chopped garlic
1 TB salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Blend until combined.

You can go any direction you want with pesto. More herbs, swap/add parsley, use a different nut, use more or less garlic etc. I like using almonds or walnuts in pesto since pine nuts are damn expensive if you get the italian ones and the chinese ones that are cheap have been reported to have adverse reactions for many people.

Christmas ducks...

Boneless pork chop stuffed w/ caramelized onions, garlic, apples, and bacon, topped w/ an apple cider reduction sauce. Baked asparagus flavored w/ white wine and lemon zest. Lemon rice w/ onions garlic and tomato.

Prep:



BACON!



Stuffing (appetizing huh?)



Taking form...



Almost there:



Finished product.

Mmmmmmm

Nomnomnomnom

CSA Farm share for the month. Never seen beets this big before, I didn't even know they got this big.

Home cured and smoked ham hock


Boiled it with beans for about 10 hours. Beans take forever in Colorado due to 200 degree boiling water.



Grilled pizza

As a self proclaimed grilled pizza expert, check out lifhacker for tips

http://lifehacker.com/5459718/build-...-a-weber-grill

there are other posts about it to get some ideas. At my dads shop we rigged up an old oven to a propane tank (5ft tall, not a normal one) and ripped off the oven cleaning lock mechanism. best pizza oven ever

That pizza looks really good.

Was very good, I highly recommend the emile henry pizza stone, been getting great results on it so far.

@ guids, my gas weber gets up to about 600, your modded gas oven sounds awesome though.

Looks like I gotta bust out the camera again next time we make another good semi-original/unusual meal.

Sup, homeskillet.

After not having one for years, the steak thread got me back on track with one of the things every man should own: a 10" cast iron skillet. I went with the classic, a Lodge.

Friends were coming over Friday night so i thought i'd give some retro dessert a try. Pineapple Upside-down Cake!

with baconfat photobomb!


BOOM!



8 out of 8 approval rating.

Keepin it classy today:

Recipe? You do it the easy way with prefab cake mix?

I need a dessert in my very limited repertoire and this seems like it could be both easy and delicious.

the recipe is linked. no prefab cake crap, just a few ingredients. i had the kids do the pineapple slices and cherries.


holy **** stabn.

27offsuit...nice looking cake.

I finally got into the cast iron game by getting a flat bottom and one with the raised edges for grill marks.

Whats some of your other favorite dishes to cook using the cast iron besides the normal pan seared steaks, breakfasts, etc.

i did cornbread once already, but it wasn't what i was looking for. when i get a good recipe i'll post some pics.
it's really good for pancakes. i use this recipe, which i made a thread about.
they're really good for home fries. i par boil regular and sweet potatoes and use them a few times during the week.

one thing i've found they are not really good for is eggs. i don't like brown on my scrambled or over easy eggs and that's near impossible to do in this pan. i imagine you can do it, but it would take way too much time.

just made a big pancake dessert

RISE!..


mixed fruit and powdered sugar. gone in 5 minutes:

looks like a sombraro! haha no but thats really cool, i'm going to try it this weekend

how long does it stay puffy for? like does it deflate as soon as you cut it?

That looks a lot like a Dutch Baby.

Starts deflating as soon as you take it out.

That is a Dutch baby, German Pancake, etc!

Decided to make some salt beef seeing as i bought a 4kg (9lb~) brisket. The recipe starts with curing in brine for 3-5 days with 1 day in clean water afterwards.

You can add what you like to the brine to flavour it, My recipe was 1.5kg of salt 500g demara sugar, bay leaves, cloves, star anise, pepper. In 5litres of water.

Brine being brought to boiling point on my filthy hob.



Brisket



Briskets



Floating Briskets



Finally problem solved.




It was annoying having to cut them in half but i just had no other way of curing and cooking something of that size.