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Soup, Stew, Chili, Gumbo (Cold weather eats)


Etexhorn13

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20 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Wonder if a dash of fish sauce would give it that he extra salt and ooomph it needs?

Maybe. Didn’t seem like it needed an umami layer. Maybe some coconut milk?

10 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Salt:  0.75 tsp per pound of unsalted food (protein, veggies, liquid, whatever).  Adjust up from there if need be.

It’s a pound of shrimp, and I guesstimated about 1.5 tsp. Felt like it needed a bit more. My sodium-sensitive wife disagreed and thought it was plenty.

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1 minute ago, South Austin said:

Maybe. Didn’t seem like it needed an umami layer. Maybe some coconut milk?

It’s a pound of shrimp, and I guesstimated about 1.5 tsp. Felt like it needed a bit more. My sodium-sensitive wife disagreed and thought it was plenty.

I'll be honest, I go 1 tsp Morton's per lb of ___, but I like salt and I don't have health issues precluding me from consuming it in those quantities.

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morton's is closer to table salt in density than it is diamond crystal. finally bought a box of diamond crystal so i can properly make NYT recipes without needing to consult a conversion chart. lame they don't use the much more widely available kosher salt.

Edited by elfenix
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3 hours ago, elfenix said:

morton's is closer to table salt in density than it is diamond crystal. finally bought a box of diamond crystal so i can properly make NYT recipes without needing to consult a conversion chart. lame they don't use the much more widely available kosher salt.

Use the serving size on the nutrition label.  Salt -- any brand -- is 39% sodium.  You want ~ 1.87 grams sodium per pound of food.  (OK, back it off to 1.4 grams while you get your sea legs.)  The nutrition label will tell you how many millligrams of sodium are in ___ tsp.  Figure out how many tsp gets you to 1.4 grams and use that per lb of food.

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2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Use the serving size on the nutrition label.  Salt -- any brand -- is 39% sodium.  You want ~ 1.87 grams sodium per pound of food.  (OK, back it off to 1.4 grams while you get your sea legs.)  The nutrition label will tell you how many millligrams of sodium are in ___ tsp.  Figure out how many tsp gets you to 1.4 grams and use that per lb of food.

Thinking Think GIF by Rodney Dangerfield

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Thought I had a disaster on my hands last night.  When I added my stock (homemade)  to the roux, the mix got all lumpy and slimy.  That had never happened to me before, but I did darken my roux more than usual.  I decided to crank it up to boil for a short time, and that evened everything out.  Turned out to be a pretty good batch.  

So I guess it was a temperature issue with the roux and stock? 

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15 hours ago, elfenix said:

Goulash

Followed this recipe for ingredients, but used Serious Eats beef stew method. 

After the first braise:

PXL_20250122_021323703_MP.thumb.jpg.27dd8e55f34b40d978b418ff12e81893.jpg

Done, took an extra half hour, probably should have brought the fresh veg up to a simmer before putting it into the oven.

PXL_20250122_035743593_MP.thumb.jpg.e0fcd83dfacd34e285c6f6e356652f20.jpg

Served:

PXL_20250122_041258080_MP.thumb.jpg.9ff1fcac54e75d25fbdf0de751c1661f.jpg

That looks amazing, and really similar to how we make beef stew.

I can't tell you how many times as a kid I'd be at a friend's house and we'd get served macaroni noodles in tomato juice with ground beef and it would be called "goulash".

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1 hour ago, Chico_SA said:

Thought I had a disaster on my hands last night.  When I added my stock (homemade)  to the roux, the mix got all lumpy and slimy.  That had never happened to me before, but I did darken my roux more than usual.  I decided to crank it up to boil for a short time, and that evened everything out.  Turned out to be a pretty good batch.  

So I guess it was a temperature issue with the roux and stock? 

the flour and oil quickly separate when you add liquid into a roux. i think it's just a matter of whisking more to help that process along, which boiling can also do.

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23 hours ago, elfenix said:

Goulash

Followed this recipe for ingredients, but used Serious Eats beef stew method. 

After the first braise:

PXL_20250122_021323703_MP.thumb.jpg.27dd8e55f34b40d978b418ff12e81893.jpg

Done, took an extra half hour, probably should have brought the fresh veg up to a simmer before putting it into the oven.

PXL_20250122_035743593_MP.thumb.jpg.e0fcd83dfacd34e285c6f6e356652f20.jpg

Served:

PXL_20250122_041258080_MP.thumb.jpg.9ff1fcac54e75d25fbdf0de751c1661f.jpg

Love the coloring going on on top of that situation. 

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8 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I can't tell you how many times as a kid I'd be at a friend's house and we'd get served macaroni noodles in tomato juice with ground beef and it would be called "goulash".

Macaroni, hamburger, diced tomatoes, canned corn, Worcestershire was ours. Cheap grated parm on top. 

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8 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

There’s at least some attempt at flavor between the Worcestershire and parm

Back in the day, paprika had one type of life/purpose: an ancient small container of it in the back of the spice cabinet, kept for the exclusive purpose of sprinkling on top of deviled eggs once or twice a year.  By the time you ever ate anything using it, that paprika had the flavor profile of red chalkdust.  

F'n white people spice cabinets had salt, pepper, that container of paprika, and an ancient container of poultry seasoning for thanksgiving each year.  And that was pretty much it.  Sure, the baking cabinet had other things, like vanilla and cinnamon.  But the white people spice cabinet of the 1970s....it was the place where flavor went to die.

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Back in the day, paprika had one type of life/purpose: an ancient small container of it in the back of the spice cabinet, kept for the exclusive purpose of sprinkling on top of deviled eggs once or twice a year.  By the time you ever ate anything using it, that paprika had the flavor profile of red chalkdust.  

F'n white people spice cabinets had salt, pepper, that container of paprika, and an ancient container of poultry seasoning for thanksgiving each year.  And that was pretty much it.  Sure, the baking cabinet had other things, like vanilla and cinnamon.  But the white people spice cabinet of the 1970s....it was the place where flavor went to die.

Yeah, and I grew up in Ground 0 of that shit.

That's not to say that there aren't amazing Midwestern contributions to our national palate, but there's a lot of Depression era blandness that still clings on in places.  Granted, my kitchen is not one of those places, but just a couple years ago the wife of one of our landlords cooked us a hot supper while we were harvesting around their house.  As grateful as I was for my first hot meal in a month, it was good old macaroni/tomato juice/ground beef goulash with literally nothing else in it.  She's a very sweet lady, but I don't think she'd even try mild salsa.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Back in the day, paprika had one type of life/purpose: an ancient small container of it in the back of the spice cabinet, kept for the exclusive purpose of sprinkling on top of deviled eggs once or twice a year.  By the time you ever ate anything using it, that paprika had the flavor profile of red chalkdust.  

F'n white people spice cabinets had salt, pepper, that container of paprika, and an ancient container of poultry seasoning for thanksgiving each year.  And that was pretty much it.  Sure, the baking cabinet had other things, like vanilla and cinnamon.  But the white people spice cabinet of the 1970s....it was the place where flavor went to die.

That's present day at my in laws.  A dash of 15 year old cayenne pepper into 2 gallons of chili will certainly give it that kick it's missing.

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11 minutes ago, Gene Parmesan said:

That's present day at my in laws.  A dash of 15 year old cayenne pepper into 2 gallons of chili will certainly give it that kick it's missing.

This would be my in-laws if it were up to my MIL.  When her folks were still around, everything was bland except for the weird Norwegian shit my wife's grandpa liked.

Thankfully my FIL has a stunningly adventurous palate for a Boomer who's lived his entire life in a small northeast Iowa town, so we never have to eat bland there.

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About the only thing I like about cold weather is the food.  On Monday, the wife made tortilla soup, which was good for then and Tuesday. On Wednesday I did a pot of chili and the wife made cornbread, which we had that night.  Today, we had chili over corn bread with cheese on top and faux frito pie (tortilla chips, as we didn't have Fritos).

Had lots of chili left to freeze for the next cold spell.  Maybe I'll make it to Spring.

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

When her folks were still around, everything was bland except for the weird Norwegian shit my wife's grandpa liked.

Even the weird nordic shit is generally.....terrible.  Sweden has the worst food of anyplace I've ever been.  They do like three things well, and none of them are particularly "zesty."  And while we have grown to love our Norwegian exchange family, when we fed our exchange daughter.....fucking cheese enchiladas with chili gravy....she commented on how spicy it was.  These are people who add canned corn to their "tacos" to jazz them up.  Dad commented how the tacos I served him the night they arrived -- which were grilled HEB chicken thigh fajitas, straight from the package with no embellishments -- were the best tacos he's had in his life, to this day.

Attractive people.

Nice people.

Their foodways are abysmal.  

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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

F'n white people spice cabinets had salt, pepper, that container of paprika, and an ancient container of poultry seasoning for thanksgiving each year.  And that was pretty much it.  

Sometimes they had a sad little mostly full can of Old Bay.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Sometimes they had a sad little mostly full can of Old Bay.

Yeah, you may see some wildcards in there.  Usually, they were purchased as a necessary ingredient for a recipe they cut out from an issue of Ladies Home Journal, and only made once.  That is often the explanation for the caked-solid small container of onion powder that expired in 1974, or maybe that dusty container of oregano they got because they once read an article about how that's an easy way to perk up your Totino's frozen pizza (that's a good article, by the way - I recommend some fennel seed as well for such purposes).

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Also, maybe a bit off the theme of the thread, but it works pretty well in cold weather.

I'm no chef and no expert in Indian, but I've been working on a simple (and not authentic) Instant Pot recipe for Dal Fry, and I like the current iteration pretty well:
 

2 tbsp Ghee
2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 green chile
     
1 onion, chopped
1 can crushed tomatoes (roasted, 14.5oz)
1/2 lemon

2c dal (mixed) (i.e. 1c chana, ½ c moong, ½ c masoor)
5c water

½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chili powder
4tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek

==================================================

Set instant pot to saute mode, heat ghee
Add cumin, green chile, garlic, mustard seed
When garlic starts to brown, add onion and saute until browned
Add tomato and other spices, cook 2min

Add washed dal and water, stir

Change instant pot to manual, high pressure for 5min
5min natural pressure release
Manually release pressure
Add lemon juice and serve
 

Adjust spice to your level as far as the green chile, or add other peppers of your choice.  Throw it over some rice and toast some naan or porotta from Costco and  it's a quick and simple weeknight winner around here, even for those who express dismay at the lack of meat.  Plenty of leftovers, too.

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5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

But the white people spice cabinet of the 1970s....it was the place where flavor went to die.

I rescued, for posterity's sake, an at least 15 year old, Sam's club sized container of Italian Seasoning from my mother's spice cabinet when we cleaned out her house.  I need to throw it away.  I may do so tonight. 

 

[CSB]My dad loved black pepper.  My mom didn't make anything spicy.  So he was constantly tapping that McCormick's Black Pepper tin over his food or using this hand-crank burr coffee grinder with pepper corns in it and shaking them out of the little drawer.

My mom did use a crap-ton of Morton's Nature Seasons on everything (that stuff is, in fact, the bomb).  And while it's good, everything tastes sort of the same.  I appreciate the fact that she taught me to cook and to love to cook.  But I've leveled up in many ways, including in the spice department.  My current problem is that my spice cabinet is over-stuffed, and I need to buy better quality spices too.  I did buy a hand-crank burr coffee grinder which I use for fresh ground pepper.  So there's that.[/CSB]

Edited by dcbc
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3 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I rescued, for posterity's sake, an at least 15 year old, Sam's club sized container of Italian Seasoning from my mother's spice cabinet when we cleaned out her house.  I need to throw it away.  I may do so tonight. 

 

[CSB]My dad loved black pepper.  My mom didn't make anything spicy.  So he was constantly tapping that McCormick's Black Pepper tin over his food or using this hand-crank burr coffee grinder with pepper corns in it and shaking them out of the little drawer.

My mom did use a crap-ton of Morton's Nature Seasons on everything.  And while it's good, everything tastes sort of the same.  I appreciate the fact that she taught me to cook and to love to cook.  But I've leveled up in many ways, including in the spice department.  My current problem is that my spice cabinet is over-stuffed, and I need to buy better quality spices too.  I did buy a hand-crank burr coffee grinder which I use for fresh ground pepper.  So there's that.[/CSB]

That's actually a great step.  The night after the eclipse, we ended up with a house full of astronomers (we were camping, but weather was blowing in, so we said fuck it, come to our casa, we have a roof and room to spare).  As we were all scrounging up dinner stuff, one of the crew -- a German -- asked me for some pepper, and as he asked, he started saying "and if you don't mind, not that..." and before he could finish, I handed him my pepper mill.  He said "oh thank you -- all that most Americans have is the powdered pre-ground pepper."

Grinding your own pepper is such a small thing, but it levels up your cooking.

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12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Even the weird nordic shit is generally.....terrible.  Sweden has the worst food of anyplace I've ever been.  They do like three things well, and none of them are particularly "zesty."  And while we have grown to love our Norwegian exchange family, when we fed our exchange daughter.....fucking cheese enchiladas with chili gravy....she commented on how spicy it was.  These are people who add canned corn to their "tacos" to jazz them up.  Dad commented how the tacos I served him the night they arrived -- which were grilled HEB chicken thigh fajitas, straight from the package with no embellishments -- were the best tacos he's had in his life, to this day.

Attractive people.

Nice people.

Their foodways are abysmal.  

Pickled herring slams though

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5 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Pickled herring slams though

It does indeed.  I found that it's one of three things -- and only three -- that the Swedes do well.

1)  The meatballs.  They are a real thing, and they're legit.

2)  Those little pancakes with lingonberry jam.  Solid.

3)  Pickled herring.

Oh, they also make some special cheese, king's cheese or whatnot, and that's pretty good.

 

That's it.  That's the entire list of food that Sweden does well.  Dear God.  It's abysmal.  While there, my phone and social media reacted to my location.  So, I got what I get on a lot of my social media -- links to recipes and cooking videos.  I got pushed a video for some recipe involving a hollowed out cabbage, lined with UNSEASONED ground beef, stuffed with a block of bland cheese, topped with a bland cream sauce (it was seasoned with a tiny bit of salt and maybe a dash of paprika, IIRC).  It looked HORRIFIC.  Nothing redeeming about it.

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20 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Yeah, and I grew up in Ground 0 of that shit.

That's not to say that there aren't amazing Midwestern contributions to our national palate, but there's a lot of Depression era blandness that still clings on in places.  Granted, my kitchen is not one of those places, but just a couple years ago the wife of one of our landlords cooked us a hot supper while we were harvesting around their house.  As grateful as I was for my first hot meal in a month, it was good old macaroni/tomato juice/ground beef goulash with literally nothing else in it.  She's a very sweet lady, but I don't think she'd even try mild salsa.

I didn’t know my in-laws leased their land. 
 

Spice cabinet contents:

- black pepper, pre ground to a talcum powder consistency

- iodized table salt

- a solidified container of lemon pepper

- a container of Tony’s that I brought over several years ago. I’m the only one who uses it. 
 

I bring my own spices whenever we visit, because I’m always asked to cook. 

Edited by luke duke
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13 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Lefse and virmapolse (sp? It’s a Norwegian sausage that I’m spelling in phonetic English) are good, but more Norwegian than Swedish

Yeah, Norway gets to claim their gas station hot dogs, which 1) are indeed next-level, and 2) one of the cheapest food choices around.  When we visited, we probably had gas station polse for a meal no fewer than 5-6 times.  Sets you back maybe $5, which is cheap for a meal in Norway.  Otherwise....yeah, their food is on par with Sweden's.  Oh, they also make fiskesuppe, their fish chowder -- that's actually pretty good, and matches up with the subject of this thread.  I still have some of that mix at home, maybe I'll make a pot soon and share it here.

 

polse-on-17-may-768x433.jpg

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My whitey suburban folks were actually great cooks in the 70s, my dad grew up in west Texas and his cooking was always heavily influenced by Mexican and New Mexican food.  His stacked enchiladas with red chimayo and fried eggs on top are absolutely slammin, and I grew up eating chorizo and scrambled eggs with diced serranos, and a bunch of other great food.  We also owned a BBQ restaurant and his brisket and ribs are absolutely amazing.  So using a variety of seasoning was common for my parents.

Even so, the one main staple that they leaned on heavily, especially for grilled foods, was the Lawry's Seasoned Salt.  Don't get me wrong, I like it and always have some in the cupboard.  But man, pretty much anything grilled or pan-fried or sauteed, was just doused in that stuff.

 

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16 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

That's actually a great step.  The night after the eclipse, we ended up with a house full of astronomers (we were camping, but weather was blowing in, so we said fuck it, come to our casa, we have a roof and room to spare).  As we were all scrounging up dinner stuff, one of the crew -- a German -- asked me for some pepper, and as he asked, he started saying "and if you don't mind, not that..." and before he could finish, I handed him my pepper mill.  He said "oh thank you -- all that most Americans have is the powdered pre-ground pepper."

Grinding your own pepper is such a small thing, but it levels up your cooking.

I have a couple of traditional-looking pepper grinders, but none of them do it like the Zassenhaus manual coffee mill.  The grind (even though adjustable) is like a combination of course and fine, and that slight inconsistency just hits differently.  

 

81C5iWZgxJL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_FMwebp

Edited by dcbc
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34 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

My granddad made liver and onions every morning for breakfast.  Man, I cannot stand liver.

 

25 minutes ago, dcbc said:

That was my mom's Luby's go-to entree.  I'll eat a lot of things, but I just can't do it.

Man....it's not an every day thing for sure, and certainly not my regular Luby's call.  But every once in a while.....a good pan fried liver and onions, with plenty of salt and pepper....it hits RIGHT.

21 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I have a couple of traditional-looking pepper grinders, but none of them do it like the Zassenhaus manual coffee mill.  The grind (even though adjustable) is like a combination of course and fine, and that slight inconsistency just hits differently.  

 

81C5iWZgxJL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_FMwebp

I got a pepper mill a while back that let's me adjust my grind, so I can do a couple of kinds at a time, but that does look pretty handy.  And I do love those manual mills for lots of spices.

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1 hour ago, South Austin said:

Or you could just give a narrative description of how they tasted.

Hungry Ad-Rock GIF by Beastie Boys

But, here you go...

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a58253/best-homemade-chili-recipe/

I used fire roasted tomatoes

I adjusted spices to my taste/family's taste and use ancho chili powder

I did not drain the fat and used 2 lbs

I replaced kidney with black beans *gasp*

Sour cream not allowed anywhere near my chili

Also had sliced tabasco peppers for toppings with the green beans and cheese

Yes, Fritos were present

Edited by texasdago
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