Having the meat be a little pink or even fully pink when its mixed with other ingredients are fine as long as you are keeping the ingredients inside a simmering liquid or keeping the pot above a certain temperature.

Usually when sanitation engineers complain about contamination when it comes to mixing of meat and vegetables, they complain about situations like when vegetables are stuffed inside raw meat where the raw meat juices flow in to the vegetables and the center does not get cooked through for a while and thus spend quite a long time at a temperature in which bacteria and rapidly multiply.

With the Chili situation, since the meat and veggies are almost always in contact with a hot surface or submerged in a boiling liquid, you are going to be fine with regards to contamination.

That said, browning of the meat develops flavor and so you should do it predominately because of that.

Pretty standard thanksgiving dish in my area.

More than standard here except we use yams. It is right up there with the turkey, gravy, and cranberry sauce out of a can.

I didn't start to like sweet potatoes until I was in my 30s. I still don't care for yams.

ah ok, given we don't celebrate thanksgiving that explains it.

personally I'm not a fan of ground beef. I just don't like it in anything but meatballs and hamburgers. I'd be using something more like a steak that has a nice bite to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6-Z8-ZbNw0

I had this in macau, monk's head cheese. It's ****ing delicious.

cooking pan seared duck breasts tonight....anyone have any ideas for sides? I am thinking about using some kind of an orange/apricot/or cherry sauce for the duck and then for sides doing like shallot/onion pototoe aus gratin with a bunch of cheddar cheese.

What vegetable would go good with this?

not one post since I posted this earlier LOL, where are all the food heads

I am now leaning towards pan seared duck, mashed sweet potatoes and then some kind of veggie

I love potatoe gratin. Your first post about the sides sounds awesome. Cherry sauce w/duck sounds pretty damn good

one trick for a good berry sauce, use multiple types of berry. Add raspberry or strawberry. makes for depth of flavor.

probably the same for a cherry sauce.

if daffy is cooked med rare and his skin is crispy i could care less about a sauce. just gimme a couple drops of good olive oil and a fork.

Warmsmoked salmon, 1 with chili, 1 without. Dressing with capers, chives, lemon juice, honey, salt, peber, oil and some other stuff. Homemade bread was served with it.



Duck Breast with a veal glaze (balsamico, red wine, carrots, onoins, veal stock, orange juice) finished with a little port. Duckfat fried potatoes and a simple salad with vinegrate.



Apple "cake" my stepbrother arrived with, a nice 5 kg monster.

Timmmmmmmmbuuuurrrrrrrrrr !

Eggs scrambled with melted cream cheese, in butter, with buttered toast or toasted and buttered English muffin.

Another one is mushrooms sauteed in butter over toast, but it isn't very filling. So aromatic and flavorful though, I love it.

Another is chicken meat (thighs are great but any will do and all are cheap if you know how to buy) sauteed in plenty of caramelized onions with fresh garlic, a little sesame oil, and just a touch of soy sauce, fresh ground black pepper added at the end. Great with any starch from wraps to rice. A small portion mixed in of extremely finely chopped hot peppers (habanero or jalapeno) is a great boost, too. Anaheim chiles or other mild peppers are good here too, but the cost rises once you include much in the way of peppers.

I think my favorite cheap dishes involve chicken and onions, because chicken is so cheap and low fat, and onions bought in bulk are so cheap, plus they make a great combo. And almost anywhere cooked onions appear, I try to sneak in some garlic too, and together they make for such righteous flavor.

Seriously, qfmft. I will never understand the need to dump a bunch of sweet sauce over the top of duck. It is delicious meat.

I guess the only sauce I have ever cared for with magret is a simple pan reduction, with as little added flavor as possible. I am hoping the duck tastes like duck.

EDIT: Cookie's sauce above looks pretty solid. Maybe even a little more than solid.

Yeah, I would say it would behoove anyone to have these things on hand, and learn how to put them together. I can be sitting at my desk, realize I am hungry, and be eating this within four minutes of the realization.

I just put the cream cheese on the English muffin, myself, but yeah...five minutes cooking time, total cost, uh, what? 55 cents?

I made some pulled pork. Turned out pretty well, not amazing. I guess that's why I'm not a chef.

I also tried making some homemade mayonnaise. Turned out great, turned around to clean up a bit, turned back around and it broke all to hell. God dammit.

I am sorry to hear you broke your mayonnaise. That would suck.

Meanwhile, don't give up on the pulled pork. That would be like choosing celibacy. Just do better next time. Low and slow. Low and slow.

yeah gobbo you used too much oil most likely. each egg can only bind so much oil. it shouldnt start to break for a few hours.

Used like 3 egg yolks and 300 ml of oil or so. Gonna get a food processor next time. The mayo should eventually just be stable though right? How do I make it stable?

Made the crashjr-inspired harira again last night. nom nom nom. Might have pics if my gf emails them to me.

Steak from my supplier again tonight. It was long, rough week. Time to treat myself.

What's the process in making the chicken/onion dish? Do you put chicken on first for some time, then add onions/garlic/sesame oil etc? I sometimes have trouble timing it so everything cooks perfectly.

how much oil per egg really depends on quite a few things but the easiest way is to start blending your eggs and add the oil in super slow while its being whisked or whatever until it gets to the consistancy you want. properly made it should be a little fluffy.

RE: truffle + scrambled eggs

I recently saw a chef advise to store your eggs with a piece of truffle, if you get one. As eggs are porous(?) and absorb flavor and truffles are expensive it gives your scrambled eggs with the truffle flavor without having to use it up.

I made homemade chipotle, which would have been pretty darn good except I used Minute white rice- ruined it. Even at 49, cooking is a learning process.