that seems delicious and excellent presentation too. very well done sir and a great follow up post to kick this off!
the tips are great also, as a lot of them are things i've always been guilty of (too many veg, steaming, too many sauce/stirfry pastes that drown out the flavours/make everything just look brown)

Looks good gregorio, I make vegetarian stir fry from time to time too but instead of tofu which I think is boring I'm using tempeh, which uses fermented soy beans and some kind of mold - doesn't taste off / gone / icky at all though but does have its own, distinctive taste (nutty is so overused an adjective but pretty fitting), has a much more interesting texture too.

Google images:

went with pork-loin(was on sale) combined it with spinach, mushrooms and gave it an oriental touch(star anise, cinnamon, cumin, pimento, cardamom) and topped it with roasted almonds for crunch.
also bell pepper a must for mushrooms imo and parsley/dried tomatoes fit in nicely as well.

marinated the pork for a few hours with paprika/caraway/garlic/parsley and a little bit of marjoram/savory


a small portion of it served with rice

(I ate more of course but I prefer serving smaller portions as I automatically eat a little slower and enjoy/savor it more)

where are the noodles!

That's a weird looking stir fry you got there, Cashy.

plating makes it looks unconventional for a stir fry i guess

I thought the initial planting looked great, Cashy! "Stir fry" is a cooking method, not a plating style, after all.

Maybe it's your use of rice, rather than noodles, that threw people? Does this have to be a noodle stir fry? Mine probably will be, but I didn't get the impression it was mandatory...

good thread idea

gjge jidc

Thread is relevant to my interests. However, I will not be able to participate this week. Was there a ruling on posting up a week later, or are submissions closed after Sunday and we are onto the next thing on Monday?

Cashy, stir fry looks good. Stir fry definitely does not require noodles. Do you grind the star anise and cardamom or do you leave them whole? They both have quite strong flavor. I typically infuse them into a liquid then strain them out. Interested in how you do it.

cardamom I almost always grind(and did here) but as you said it has strong flavor so I use it more sparingly in comparison to other spices.
I have my own "oriental spice mix" w/ cinnamon, cumin, pimento, cardamom, cayenne pepper, paprika, coriander(make it every 2-4 weeks with mostly fresh ground spices) which I usually sear in some butter on the side of the pan for 5-10 secs and then deglaze with some liquid.

star anise is even stronger/more unique than cardamom imo and for most dishes I put it in whole right at the start to give light flavor(like whole garlic/thyme is often used) and take it out before serving.
I do that with star anise even for fairly conventional ragouts/stews especially beef(a trick I learned from heston blumenthal).
I usually only grind star anise for indian type dishes where I want a strong, slightly dominant liquorice type taste

I would say go ahead and post it the next week if you have it, but once this thread has had a few weeks don't just go back and cook stuff from weeks ago to post here. Use another thread to post those meals. Also, if you only have time to cook one of the meals in a given week I think the current one would be more appropriate than a past one if its something you would eat.

I made the sitr fry last night. Went with rice instead of noodles and stuck with chicken and a few different vegetables.

Here are (most of) the ingredients I used:




First, I put the rice on since it take far longer than everything else. Once the rice had about 25 min left I started with the rest of the prep which began with cooking the chicken. I added black pepper, red pepper flakes, and ginger to the chicken. I just eyeballed the amounts on all 3.




Then I cut up all the vegetables. I had shallots, yellow onion, mini bell peppers (yellow, orange, and red), garlic, and chives. I also squeezed out half of a lemon on the chicken at this point.




When the chicken was maybe 80% done I added the vegetables to the pan. At this time I also added soy sauce and sriracha and stirred.




After those were in for 3-4 min I added a couple handfuls of kale which cook down quickly given the heat and liquid already in the pan.




Finally, I added the rice which was just finishing and stirred. I added a little more rice than I would like, but it still came out pretty well. After the picture I also added some sessame seeds (forgot to do this originally) and a little more soy sauce to taste.




I probably could have done better given its a pretty straightforward dish, but having never made stir fry before it was a decent effort.

I also went ahead and made a meal for next week that I will post on Monday.

chicken does end up fairly overcooked that way
take it out at and set aside at 70%ish done next time(around 45-60 sec from each side), continue with the vegetables, and just add the chicken for another 20-30 secs right at the end(it will be close to done before you add it already anyway because it continued to cook when you set it aside)

Roger that. I cook almost every day when not traveling so that won't be an issue.

announced Monday cook by Sunday is not a whole lot of notice for those of us ocd types that plan menus more than a week in advance.

+1. Using thigh meat also helps keep it moist and is more flavorful but it does change the macros somewhat if that's important to you.

yea, I probably could have done that. Chicken is the one meat I am always worried about undercooking and often overdo.

Should we post earlier? If we post earlier then I am worried we end up with multiple meals going at once and the thread gets cluttered? Maybe separate threads are a good idea with more lead time for people to prepare, but not actually cooking until that week? Would people end up missing them because they are navigating from participated or subscribed threads though?

A topic like "stir fry" is sufficiently generic that I could easily work it in if I wasn't on the road right now. Its the more specific stuff like corn chowder. Or if the dish calls for fermenting something or I want a particular fresh foraged ingredient or a sauce that takes a week to prepare like a piri piri or if I need an ingredient that I have to mail order because I live 300+ miles from whole foods etc etc

So what about announcing two ahead weeks at a time?

At bat: stir-fry

On Deck: Jambalaya

In the hole: Fried chicken

would be ideal and would give people the time to do it right imo.

Looks good, CDL. I think a big leak for me is that I make too much at once, have some leftovers the next night, and then freeze some for later. But made fresh is so much better and stir fries are so easy once everything's prepped, in the future I'll probably prep the same amount and then only cook enough for one meal and put the rest in the fridge to make later. I'm never really excited about eating frozen leftovers.

Knowing what's up next could be helpful for people who shop on the weekend and then have all week to cook, and then encourage people to not post next weeks meal early, even if you make it ahead of time.

Crash, WTF , who doesn't always have fresh piri piri sauce on hand?

Ugh. Hanging my head in shame. That was hard to type and I hoped no one would notice.

sounds good. We will try this.

I also made too much, but I think stir fry reheats ok from the fridge. Not as sure about the freezer. Prepping it all and leaving the extra vegetables in a container in the fridge is probably best.

This seems like a great compromise to me. One thread, to minimize forum clutter and keep everything together. An updated "menu" regularly edited into the OP (Week 1: Stir-Fry; Week 2: Jambalaya; etcetera) with each menu line being a link to the Sunday "reveal" post ITT that introduced that week's item. However don't have the Sunday "reveal" be the first mention of the item, tease it a couple weeks in advance with an on deck/in the hole system, so that people have prep time if they want or need it.

The one other organizational idea I would propose is that for the Sunday reveals, a full cooking of the dish with instructions and advice should certainly be welcome, but should NOT be required. If someone instead wants to just post a recipe and a few stock photos they find online, that should also be fine. The reason being that as I understand it, we're trying to encourage cooking newbies to participate in this thread, and then randomly selecting among all participants to pick future dishes. This means newbies will sometimes be picking the dishes, and being asked to "demo" something they've never made before might be intimidating or scary. It's still a healthy exercise, and if they WANT to, of course they're welcome to, but let's not risk scaring anyone away by telling them they HAVE to.

Edit: Also, if we want to go to this system immediately it means we need an "in the hole" third item (since CDL already has an "on deck" second item lined up). I have a fun one that I'd be happy to do, if noone else wants to volunteer. I promise it's good, but PM me if you want editorial control, CDL. Then week 4's item would be chosen on Sunday by a randomly selected participant from this week, and our long term pattern would be set.

Next week's meal is:

-Bacon wrapped salmon (I also made chicken for the next day at the same time) with a spicy maple glaze
-primary side ingredients: kale, mini bell peppers, onion, potatoes, green onion, spices and herbs

this is a fine compromise to me. I can't edit the OP or anything, but will keep a running index of weekly compilations if we can get a mod to edit it once a week.

go ahead and post your "in the hole" meal idea/ingredients. Ideally it will be a whole meal or a dish that most people would consider a meal in itself like a pizza, but preferably not just a sandwich, soup, or burger type thing with no sides.

I'd assume we can find a mod willing to edit in one new "menu" line each week, especially if you do the legwork for them and let them know exactly what it should read each time?

My entry is much less of a "full composed meal", and much more of a super-flexible "make it however you want" type item, kind of like the stir-fry was. In fact there are even options to make it as either a complete meal by itself, a main entree that needs sides, or as the side with something else as a main entree. However I also think it's a perfect choice for this format because it's a somewhat intimidating - but really not that difficult - item that every chef should know how to make, but many people might not feel confident to try without a little push to do so. And this thread is a perfect way to give that push.

When I present the "OP" for it, I will talk about basic technique and how to make a simple version as a side (and people will be welcome to just make that, along with whatever entrees they want to round out their plates), and I will also talk about ways to make it an entree or even a full meal unto itself - which is what my demo version will be.

On Deck: Risotto!