I've had this one before. As I said, it's very good for $8. It's a little young and fruit forward compared to more expensive Shirazes, but it's got a nice oaking and hint of vanilla that's a nice addition to an inexpensive wine.

Sometimes I put peanut butter on my spaghetti. It's sort of my backhanded tribute to Thai food, but mostly because I've run out of spaghetti sauce. So I'm thinking to myself, "Hey, chocolate goes good with peanut butter, why not add that to the mix?" I may throw in some Caesar salad dressing, because I know that's good on pasta.

If by "made," you mean "Googled," then I made the sauce with my mind.

I do cook a fair amount, but I never take photos of it, because I feel like I should be concentrating on what I'm doing.

I intend to start documenting my culinary forays very soon, though.

Anyway, Mollydooker is an Australian winery, and they really turn out some nice product.

If you're going to do this, do it with that organic peanut butter with the peanut oil on top. It's easier to work with and it will taste much better.

Add a little sesame oil and some of that red chili sauce to taste (not sriracha--that's not the flavor you want with the peanut butter and sesame), and top it with some chopped green onions and maybe a few crushed peanuts, and you are really doing well for yourself.

I do this all the time, by the way. It always goes over well, and it's really quite simple.

Me being a grad student, do they put out decent stuff for <$15?

I get the Maitre d and the Boxer, which each list at $25 per bottle, for $18 at the discount place in Hampden here in Baltimore.

If you feel your max is $15, change it to $18 and you'll be glad you did.

If you simply cannot do it, I have found the following to be a great value (both the pinot grigio and the pinot noir):

Gib,

My liquor store carries the Ninth Island but not the Piper's Brook.

Rush,

The store also carries Mollydooker's Enchanted Path and Blue Eyed Boy, but those are well beyond my balla-ness. They have the Two Left Feet, too, and that's approaching the realm of reason, but still pushing it. I'd consider it, though. I can get the Kris Pinot Grigio and Merlot. I'll look into them.

Yes, I do use the organic peanut butter. Sesame oil, red chili sauce, chopped green onions, and peanuts, ok. Is Tabasco red chili sauce? I use lots of Tabasco.

This stuff is great. It's very similar to what we call "hots" here in Balmer, or "hot peppers" in many other places (like when ordering on a sub). Tabasco just wouldn't taste quite right.

Meanwhile, if you really want to make it perfect, use linguini instead of spaghetti.

I might do this tonight.

Which reminds me--this is a great dish to know because you virtually always have the stuff around to make it (assuming you get that chili sauce, which you should).

Well ended up with a bit of a hangover, however I was rly pleased how the food turned out.

Pork Belly (which was slow cooked for 5 Hours!!)


Lamb

Gib, those are a couple of great looking dishes. Could you provide recipes please?


Here's a spicy variation on lentil soup I made.



Ingredients
Lentils
Fresh tomatoes
Canned tomatoes (with chile peppers)
Fresh Jalapeno and banana peppers
Onions
Garlic
Bacon
Ground Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Bay leaves
Oregano
Ground Cumin and Cayenne Pepper
Celery Seed
Water
Pork Bone (if you have one)

Directions
Cut bacon into 1 inch strips and brown.
Add all other ingredients and browned bacon into a slow cooker
Cook on low for 6-8 hours
Serve with lemon halves or vinegar

I prefer milk with hot spicy meals, as it cools down my mouth after eating the spice. Additionally, it's good to have milk with lentils so you can get all your essential amino acids.

Looks very hearty.

I really like peppers and lemon in lentil soup, too. The bay leaf also sounds good, but to me it would be hard to resist putting some onions in, and maybe some thyme and/or rosemary.

Not sure how I feel about the cumin. But it would be interesting to see and find out.

There's onions and garlic in there.

I started out thinking I'd just make pork and beans, except with lentils instead of beans. I had a pork shoulder bone and a bit of fat and collagen left over from the pork shoulder still in my slow cooker, so I just added lentils, water and tomatoes. Then I thought I needed more pork so I added bacon. But I also had some fresh peppers laying around that I didn't want to go bad, so I added them. At that point it changed from pork and beans to chile. So that got me to add the cumin.

Any way the whole process was haphazard, but it turned out to be pretty good. The main flavors were the peppers and the lentils. The other spices, including the cumin, were barely noticeable, just a subtle hint of them.

Ah, I scanned past the onions.

That's the nice thing about soups. As long as the original ingredients aren't bad, it's pretty easy for nearly random combinations to come out well.

Yeah that's the beauty of soup, especially in a slow cooker. If anyone is afraid to cook, that would be the perfect place to start and get your confidence up. It's so easy and really hard to screw up.

Good to see some lentils in here tsearcher, I've only just started getting into them. But I rly do enjoy them. Here are those recipes:



Season & sear Pork Belly, then add to baking/casserole dish
Add:
Chicken Stock (enough to just cover)
Chopped Red & Golden Delicious Apples
Chopped Spring Onion
Star Anise (x2)
Fresh Ginger
Splash of Soy
Decent Teaspoon of honey (tho u don't want this overpowereing same as the ginger)
I'll place this in the oven @ 120-130 degrees celcius & bake for 4-5 hours.

To Serve:
Chop Celery, Red & Green Delicious Apple, Fennel & saute slightly in pan
Usually I add celery & fennel 1st then apple u want to keep them crisp.

Add the apple salsa to a plate/bowl, then slice pork & plate. I then strain the broth & spoon over.

[/QUOTE]

Risotto:
Grab about 300g of mushrooms (I like portabello & ****aki's for this), & saute in pan with some chopped fresh thyme & parsley add a little salt & a squeeze of lemon juice. Place aside.

Place roughly 1Ltre of Chicken/Vegetable Stock on heat in a separate pan.
Chop Spring onion, celery & bacon & saute slightly add some 2 cloves of garlic.
Add white wine & boil off alcohol then add 300-400g of aborio rice.
Keep stirring until the rice starts becoming a little translucent.
Place half of your mushrooms in for now & add the 1st ladle of Stock.
Turn the heat down & keep on stirring adding ladle @ a time of stock. I like to add the rest of the mushrooms near the end of the risotto & just stirring lightly so they don't break up.
Just before serving grate up some good parmesan cheese & stir through.

Lamb:
I was going to do a herb crust on these but instead I just sprinkled Thyme & rosemary with some seasoning then seared the rack & finished off in the oven (I usually place foil around the bones to prevent burning). These shouldn't take very long at all. I added some asparagus wich I had sitting in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice & pepper. Then Grilled before serving.

I'm way out of my league when we start talking about star anise. I would have no idea what to do with it. I don't even know what to do with ginger.

It can be pretty strong but I love aniseed so I don't mind it. Cool thing with star anise is u just plonk it in & it's all good! If I do a bolognaise sauce I always add it, rly gives the soffritto I nice flavour.

oh, just remember to remove it before serving!

Thanks for posting the recipes. I see that pork belly dish being cooked in the near future. Although I'm with Blarg and am a little afraid of the star anise.

I bought some star anise for a Vietnamese pork dish I was trying to recreate from a show called Food Safari. I thought it went great with the pork, and my wife who is not at all fond of licorice thought it was good also. The only issue I have with it is storage of the rest of the bag. It sort of dominates the aroma of my spice cupboard. And dominate is a bit of an understatement.

Would love to see the recipe for that pork dish u mention. I'm a big fan of mixing pork with anything aniseed stuff like star anise & fennel works brilliantly imo.

When doing a pork roast I love to roast some fennel with it, great combo.

try Arrabbiata sauce

My secret ingredient for killer alfredo sauce is cream cheese....I found out about that gem one night when I started to make it and forgot I was out of parm. Its really good as long as you season it properly with salt and pepper. Just add the cream cheese to the steeping milk + bay leaf and clove.

Also....alfredo is a two pot sauce. Roux and flavored milk/cream I dont advise trying to make it in one pot...it usually turns out gritty.



Heres a pic from class last weekend. Braising 101.
Cocovan


chicken quarters braised in red wine and stock with tomato, mushroom and pearl onions.

sounds like a beginning of a mole' to me...try adding some chipotles.

Speaking of mole, I made some pulled pork mole nachos the other day. I'm pretty sure if I tried to post a picture, the awesomeness would cause the Internet to implode.