Thanks Chef!

more than welcome!

Hi Chef!

Good to see you again.

Weird request, but can you hook me up with a world class vegan dish?

I don't care how difficult it is, and I can get any ingredient.

The secondary strange request, is that I need to leave it for a day in the refrigerator before the folks I'm gifting it to get to this destination.

I've made them marinara and soup.. I'm just puzzled right now. Meat free throws me off my game.

tonight...
Chef

black eye peas and spinach casserole

1 cup dry black-eyed peas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cups fresh spinach
1.5lbs peeled and diced tomato or 28 ounce can peeled and diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fennel seed, ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F  
Cook black-eye peas in a pressure cooker for 12 minutes.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Saute onion with spinach, tomatoes, salt and fennel for 15 minutes.
Combine beans with spinach mixture in a 2 quart casserole dish.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.



Shepherds Pie

Mashed potato layer:
5 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons vegan cream cheese substitute (such as Tofutti ®)
2 teaspoons salt

Bottom layer:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced, or more to taste
1 pinch ground black pepper to taste
1 (14 ounce) package vegetarian ground beef substitute
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar-style soy cheese


Directions

Place the potatoes in a pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat to medium-low, and boil the potatoes until tender, about 25 minutes; drain.

Stir the vegan mayonnaise, soy milk, olive oil, vegan cream cheese, and salt into the potatoes, and mash with a potato masher until smooth and fluffy. Set the potatoes aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C), and spray a 2-quart baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook and stir the onion, carrots, celery, frozen peas, and tomato until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the Italian seasoning, garlic, and pepper.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and crumble the vegetarian ground beef substitute into the skillet with the vegetables. Cook and stir, breaking up the meat substitute, until the mixture is hot, about 5 minutes.

Spread the vegetarian meat substitute mixture into the bottom of the baking dish, and top with the mashed potatoes, smoothing them into an even layer. Sprinkle the potatoes with the shredded soy cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese is melted and slightly browned and the casserole is hot, about 20 minutes.


VegaMAC and No cheese
1 (8 ounce) package uncooked elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/3 cups water
salt to taste
1/3 cup canola oil
4 ounces roasted red peppers, drained
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add macaroni, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Transfer to a medium baking dish.

Heat vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion, and cook until tender and lightly browned. Gently mix with the macaroni.

In a blender or food processor, mix cashews, lemon juice, water, and salt. Gradually blend in canola oil, roasted red peppers, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Blend until smooth. Thoroughly mix with the macaroni and onions.

Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned. Cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

what you think?

Chef

i think they sound better with meat but to each their own

You are in the ballpark, and I think I'm leaning towards the sheppards pie. Though, I might be safer with a soup.

Does it make a difference if they are also Paleo?

just one answer for that


California=Granola

what do they eat? Bark?

paleo and vegan leaves pretty much Nuts...so, it fits..

They are super sweet people. Cooking around them has presented challenges above my ability thus far.

I have visions of vampires, walking dead, skinny, pale, gaunt...

They eat a lot of salad. And they are very thin. I really do love them, and would like to cook something they can eat. I'm baffled, but do love a challenge.

well you should and enjoy a thick steak while they dine on willow bark simmered in lemon water and dandelion salad with sweet vinaigrette..

paleo to my understanding is meat, eggs, vegetables, no grains, no dairy, while vegan is vegetables, a quick and easy solution is cube some tofu and stir fry it like any other stir fry meal...unless they're salt restrictivive, leaving out soy sauce..

Mr Awesome Chef of the arfcoms.

I made a cheese sauce. 1st time it was fine. 2nd and 3rd time it separated the oil out. I still ate it, tasted great (keto diet, threw it over steamed broccoli and chicken)

recipe:
1/4 c heavy cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
2tbspn butter
2oz cream cheese
dash paprika/cayenne pepper/salt/onion powder/garlic powder

melt butter & heavy cream
add cream cheese and whisk til smooth/starts slow bubble
take off heat and add cheddar, wisk, add a tiny bit of heavy cream if needed to thin out

the first time i added a dash of heavy cream, 2nd and 3rd I didnt get a chance to before is separated

i mean all 3 times it was delicious, but what the flapjacks and waffles did I do wrong?

the only things I can think I maaay have strayed was 1st time it was at a decent bubble for a sec before I added cheese. I don't remember, I was drinking, a lot.

halp.

hard to say,takes very little to crack a cream sauce of any kind..dirty spoon, pan, whisk, too much heat or not enough, too much too soon, not enough fast enough..PRACTICE is the only suggestion with out watching the process...and be sure everything is clean..and yes, a bit of a bubble going before adding cheese maybe part of the issue...but  it's practice the most common cause to sauces breaking

Chef..

Hi Chef!

I recently traveled to NorCal, and stopped at a roadside stand for fresh produce along the central coast of CA on my way home. It wasn't my normal type of shopping, with a plan in place, I just bought a bunch of farm fresh, local ingredients.

Which is why at the moment I have cream of artichoke soup, and a pan of really ugly chili rellanos in my fridge. (Guac, mango salsa, and a few other things too...)

Now, question to you about those rellanos... How in the hell is one supposed to keep those suckers intact when frying?

I roasted the Poblanos and charred the skin, then let them sit covered to loosen the skin, then peeled it off. Seeded, and was left with a very floppy pepper...I added cheese, monterey Jack and a Queso Fresco melting cheese then tried to wrap it up...That was NOT happening. I did my best, and tried several different ways of getting the egg mixture around the peppers, and the peppers INTO the oil. In my mind, after doing this in two batches with eight peppers, the only thing that would have helped was cooking twine.

Is there a cheat out there to keep these things in a neat little package? If not, I'll bake them next time.

Thanks! Dawn

Dawn. Did u flour the chili wrapped cheese before dipping in egg whites?

No, after reading through several recipes, I whisked the egg whites separately until fluffy, then whisked the egg yokes with flour in a separate bowl, then folded everything together. The idea was to dip the chili wrapped cheese into the mixture, then drop into the oil. I also tried holding a pepper in my hand, and spooning the mixture on top, and trying to flip it, egg side down into the oil before adding more egg mixture to the side that was up. It was a floppy mess. Would flouring separately have helped? Maybe refrigerating the things first to get some structural integrity?

Maybe i cooked the peppers to long? I don't know.

We had them for dinner tonight, and i have to say, they were ugly, but probably the best I've ever had.

Wrap cheese with pepper. Lay flat on pan n chill.prep eggs. Roll pepper/cheese in light flour. Scoop it into egg. Lay into hot oil while pulling hand away in one smoove motion...or smooth. And practice makes perfect.

Hey Chef, I'll let you know how my next batch of the Chili rellanos goes, I have about half of the sauce frozen for a "next time'.

Next question is probably a stupid one. I've been thinking about asking for a few days, and always delete the message before posting.

Here goes... Is there a way of "smoking' meat without a dedicated smoker? I have never smoked anything in my life, and whatever I know about cooking, stops way short of smoking meat.

I had life changing candied salmon recently while on vacation, and really want to see if it is possible to recreate. I'm not sure if I want to go all in and buy a smoker for my little experiment...so is there any short cut?

Thanks in advance, and also, sorry in advance if this is just stupid.

practice of course perfects the process but you can smoke on any outdoor cooker that has a lid and proper vents, a good high heat
thermometer and you're on your way.
keeping your fire to one side and your food to the other. "wet" wood chips on your hot coals will smoke and smolder
and give you the flavor you seek. Just remember smoking is low and slow. 180 to 220 degrees is where you want to be and some even smoke
at a lower temp but for food safety reasons I don't recommend it.. UNLESS you're smoking hams or sides for long term storage in a smoke house or smoke box of some sort where days of low temp curing happens properly.

there have been some minor conversations in the earlier thread about smoking cheese' and spices and herbs..not my thing and didn't go very far with the others..

I had a broken convection oven in one of my properties and we used that as an indoor smoker..used a steel firebox we laid in the bottom of the old gas oven and placed briskets, ribs, turkey or chicken on the racks and smoked fish on bakers pans..worked pretty good and with the commercial exhaust hoods getting smoked out wasn't an issue. The smoked meats were good enough we sold them whole to call in customers..

There are several options available for smoking foods without a dedicated smoker. For instance, I've seen small canisters you fill with wood pellets that you light and place inside a grill or maybe even an oven. I'm sure I've seen a 9x13 gizmo that looks suspiciously like a metal cake pan with a metal sliding lid advertised for use in a home oven. I believe it uses sawdust. I think my Weber kettle grill came with instructions to use it for smoking that involved making a pouch of aluminum foil filled with wood chips and poking a few holes along its length. I suspect that they all will work but it might take a bit of trial and error to get them to work well.

If you get a batch of salmon to turn out great, let me know how you did it! All of my efforts have turned out OK but not great. Biggest problem is to obtain the good stuff to start with. Those "previously frozen fresh salmon fillets" don't seem to work all that well.

I'm wrapping my brain around chef's reply, and thinking of how that would work with what I have to work with here. I have a gas grill, and a convection oven... If I'm reading his reply correctly, my biggest issue is going to be maintaining temperature, and finding a way to smoke over indirect heat.  I understand the flavors in the Salmon I had, and am pretty confident I can recreate that..I just need to think and consider what i can do at this point.

Thanks for your input as well, I really appreciate any advice I can get.

On a side note, you can't get fresh salmon? Costco has it daily, year round. Sometimes farmed because of the season, but always available. Have you checked there? Maybe costco's are different in different states though, I don't know. I'll follow up if I figure anything out.

Chef, could you help me with a recipe? I have a recipe for Chicken Florentine, and I want to add lemon juice to the sauce. At what point do I add it so the acidity won't break the cream sauce? And how much do you suggest adding? Here's the recipe:

Thank you!

HELLO WATERCAT..

did you move, did I see that right?

well, in most cases, curdling occurs because proteins in the sauce are denatured and bind up with each other forming clumps.
In cooking, proteins are denatured by excessive heat, acid, salt, or enzymes.

Heat and acid are the usual culprits for me. For example, when making a hollandaise sauce- the egg yolks are slowly cooked to allow them to set. In most recipes the lemon juice is added later. If the sauce is heated too abruptly or too high then the egg proteins will curdle.
To prevent curdling you have a few options-

Don't expose the sauce to as much heat.
Be careful to not overcook egg rich sauces. If possible add the protein rich ingredient later in the process- for example adding yogurt to a sauce just before serving.
Heat the sauce gently.
Heating too fast will also make proteins denature. Many sauces are cooked in a double boiler- not to keep the sauce from overheating but to ensure that it heats gently.
Don't expose the proteins to too much salt or acid.
Dropping a couple tablespoons of lemon juice into warm milk is a recipe for paneer not sauce.
Take out some insurance.
Proteins bind with each other after denaturing when there are a large quantity of similar molecules all together. One solution then is to introduce a lot of dissimilar molecules that will interfere with the protein's ability to bind to itself. Common candidates for this are starch or fat.
It is difficult (but not impossible) to curdle the milk protein in cream based sauces with just heat because the high concentration of milk fat gets in the way. This is why reduction sauces can add cream to a very hot liquid and let it reduce. However, adding acid and heat can still be enough to curdle so be careful if your reduction sauce is very acidic.
Many otherwise fragile sauce recipes will call for a little bit of corn starch as an insurance policy.  
lastly..
if you make a reduction sauce rather than a flour thickend sauce they tend to take a bit more abuse but still prone to break rather quickly..
Hope that helps
Chef.

Thanks chef.  I'll write some notes on the recipe to remind myself about the cornstarch and the slow heating.

We moved a few years ago, into a house that the previous homeowners liked to do ... projects ... on. We're slowly working on getting it the way we want it. 

Hi Chef, I hope you are well!

I bought a 4 lb filet Mignon roast the other day, cleaned it, and cut steaks out of the center portion. I probably have 2 lbs of the ugly ends left over that have already been cleaned.

I'm drawing a total blank on what to do with the leftover meat...? Maybe tacos, or stew..? Do you have any 'go to' recipes to use up that cut of meat? I'm totally open to trying something outside of the lines. Meatloaf etc.

I need inspiration, and not finding it online.

BTW: I just made pesto from scratch for the first time, totally BOMB!! Toasted the pine nuts, and was a little underwhelmed at first result, so added a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of salt.  

having some computer issues today, need a new modum it seems...18 mo on the average and they've burned out?? NETGEAR 2 in 3 years, that sound right??

anyways
Tender Tips is the jargon of my day for the cuts you mention, small, oddly shaped, of often almost but not quite a real steak but wanting to be...yummm

I'll get some recipes here soon, today I hope, but
think small, steak diane, steak and peppercorns, beouf stroganoff, even Asian flavorings. they cook like filet mignon, only faster and remember to cook rare to medium rare to keep that steak taste going all while gathering the flavors found in short quick cooking methods..
you can get the same flavors found with beef stew, chili, or beef and burgundy recipes while not needing hours of simmering time found
making them with "cheaper" cuts..nothing that comes from a cow today is cheap cuts with grass fed hamburger nearing $6....


Chef

Last time I yelled at my internet provider for slow, and shitty service, the phone bank answering service person from like Sri Lanka shut me down my telling me my modem was 11 years old.

Is that somehow a bad thing?

Cox cable is the Devil, and the day I have any other option, I will make them go the way of blockbuster video.

I ended up making beef bourguignon. Filet isn't very fatty, so I thought it might work.

Friends, followers, believers please add my family in your healing prayers, my 44 yr old neice took her life last Thursday.




Thank you Chef.

Prayers out.

Prayers incoming Chef. I'm so sorry to hear about this tragic loss.

i'm so sorry chef. you and your family will be in my prayers

I'm so sorry Chef. 

thank you all , been quite a week..

I am sorry for your loss Chef.

Thank you

Hi Chef, thinking of you and hope you are well.

I'm going through a bit of withdrawals from your advice, and apologize in advance for asking anything of you in this difficult time.

I've only ever made pretty basic salsa, and recently had this at a brunch: Serrano Honey Salsa

That's all the information I have in what is in this goodness. I think the Serrano might have been roasted, and the sauce was green. Sweet, heat.. I want to make it.

This is the restaurant, the sauce if on the brunch menu. https://delfriscosgrille.com/irvine/

No urgency, just thoughts when you feel ready.

back and running....will try in the next day or two to get back to you. between work and the ranch and catching up from far too much time from home this year...Iz iz buzy...

4xDawn, maybe?

8 tomatillos, husked
3 shallots peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
4-5 ounce chopped roasted and peeled serrano peppers
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded
salt to taste before service.


in your food processor, place tomatillos, shallots, garlic, serrano peppers, cilantro, jalapeno. Using the pulse setting, coarsely chop. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until serving, taste for salt need just before service.

Hi Chef, love the thread.  Is there a way to make decent mashed potatoes without dairy or with very little?  Thanks.

Thanks so much!!

I'm just now recovering from my first son's wedding this past weekend. I'll try this one out, and let you know how it came out. Thanks!!

I don't know if this is allowed, but here is a Tex-Mex green sauce that is really good.

Green Sauce

cerealously???? Mama Ninfa's recipe.....


a fine woman who started with NOTHING outside the Houston ship channel who worked her ass off and
along with her children created a multi million dollar chain which they in turn sold for Millions more???



sure, more than welcome

CHEF

Chef,

It looks like I'm going to be going back to my Vegan friends house for a few days. I've been looking up fake hamburger patty recipes, and want to try the "best" one.

Toasted walnuts, beans...mushrooms, rice..?

Do you have a go to recipe that just wins?

thank you..I will look into this a bit and let you know..

of course you can mash potatoes with out dairy...but they're just smashed taters..

I assume you're completely lactose intolerant?

have you tried goat milk and goat/sheep milk Feta?
or tried with Silk and soy based margarine so far?

Also, to Chef, and unsub, both recipes look good, but wondering about the "honey" part that was in the description. The salsa was sweetish, and i could defiantly taste the honey. Hot and sweet, and green. sigh. I don't know.

Yeah, sorry.  We lost all good tex-mex when we moved back to Florida, so we have to go some Mama's recipes.

.

4XDawn

ok so maybe I should read the question, hmmm



have an acquaintance who world for Del's...."acquaintance" not someone I know well so, lets take it with a grain o cumin or paprika, OK?

Charred Onion Salsa
1 medium red onion
1 serrano pepper
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon smoked sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
2 limes
1/3 cup cilantro

Peel the onion and cut into 1/4 inch round slices. Coat the onion with 1 tablespoon of the oil and grill over medium high heat. Char the onions surface to obtain a smoky flavor and grilled color. Once onions are cooked remove from grill and let cool at room temperature. Slice serrano pepper into 1/8 inch rings and add them to the onions, then zest the lime and add to onion; finally, add juice from half a lime. Add the remaining ingredients to the onions and mix to combine

Chef, that looks right. I'll make it tomorrow, and post results. Thanks so much!!