Happy Mutants food and drink topic (Part 1)


Coalfish from the freezer with beans. I put stuff like that in the toaster oven. (No extra fat needed, crispy, no stove top to clean afterwards.)
Green salad with just a dollop of youghurt as dressing (Ayran works too.)
A nice rosé.

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That was a new word to me. It seems Ayran is similar to Kefir, correct?

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Correct.

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I usually make meatballs about once every 3 weeks or so using whatever ground meats I have in the freezer plus random scraps of veggies from the refrigerator. Today’s combination was 2 parts venison with 1 part pork. I added shredded carrot (still working through that massive bag I bought two weeks ago for the smoky carrot dip) and chopped up radish greens in addition to the usual herbs and spices (I’ve been tossing in 1/2 tsp of caraway lately - I like that it makes them taste “sausage-y”). I know this picture doesn’t really look all that…appetizing…but I wish you could smell my house right now! This is half of the batch. The other pan looked prettier (less fat congealing/more browning), but I packed those away before I remembered to snap a pic.

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Try fennel seed instead of caraway next time! I think you’ll really like it.

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Great suggestion! I’m sure I have a jar of that somewhere deep in the pantry that’s just begging to be used :grin:

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That looks wonderful!

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so what’s the deal with tofu? I overbought and it’s expiring (allegedly) in a couple days.

I have a few boxes of firm tofu, some miso packets, some rice, and curry mix (the 3 min curry packets of sauce kind).

it’s my understanding rice doesn’t reheat great but can I cook the tofu a bit, coat it in curry and later heat up and add rice?

Or just freeze the tofu and defrost day before using?

Hate to just throw it out, but anxiety stomach has not needed much food lately :frowning_face:

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It reheats fine. And you need left over rice that’s dried a bit to make fried rice properly. Tofu is good in fried rice. Either scrambled sorta like you’d use eggs. Or cubed up and seared and mixed in where you’d use meat.

Honestly it’s in how you reheat it. If you add liquid in any way, or try to reheat it in the presence of a sauce it’s like pasta. It’ll soak up any available water while it sits or reheats and can get mushy and over cooked. You keep it dry and reheat it dry (nuker, fry it) it comes out fine.

Tofu also freezes really well. Helps drive some of the excess liquid out before you cook it, especially if you press and drain after or while it thaws. And it’s good a really long time past it’s expo date.

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Sunday night Gibson. I wouldn’t normally post drink photos, but it’s how I’m getting at least some of my five-a-day. Pickled onions count as a vegetable, right?

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As do the olives in a martini!

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Tofu keeps quite well past the date on the carton. If it’s a block in water just keep it submerged, if it’s in a box just keep it cold or freeze it.

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Roasted tofu is a favorite of mine, and super easy / tasty. Here’s a quick and dirty method:
Oven to 425 F

Cube tofu

Toss with 1T (or more) oil and seasonings (for Asian flavor I use soy sauce, sriracha, brown sugar but you can do anything you like)

Place on lightly greased sheet pan (or use parchment paper)

Roast for ~10 minutes, flip cubes, ten more minutes

Eat with rice (or anything else)

This preparation holds up in a stir-fry or noodle dish, or can be further sauced for a “sesame chicken” like application.

Best of luck and enjoy.

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I love grilling tofu. Use Kenji’s method, and it comes out so firm on the outside and nice and chewy inside. Usually marinade with some EVOO, lemon juice, dijon mustard and some of the various italian spices.

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Ok, so I actually have a question. We have a dutch oven we’ve had for a looong time. It had an all glass lid and we broke it :frowning: There’s a calphalon lids made of… some sort of thin-ish metal that we have that fits. Was thinking of baking some no knead bread - think I can use this lid?

Cant find an all-glass replacement lid online, so probably will eventually have to replace with a cast iron lid. In the meantime, was curious is y’all thought this lid was safe…?

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Nice! When you say grilling, are you talking an outdoor grill or in a pan on the stovetop? Either way, delightful.

Ahh the language of cookery.

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It’s in a box with water in it thatdoesn’t completely cover. I’m just especially paranoid since a visit to the doctor for antibiotics carries risks given present times but sounds like I could freeze then defrost night before.

TY for this tip. I have been putting leftovers in the freezer all at once. (Eg: order some szechuan and mix in the leftover rice, realize I’m not eating it the next day, then freeze it and the rice reheats hard/weird).

Now I know to just save the veggies etc and keep it separate.

I’m just super paranoid. I have some stomach issues already just due to stress + a medical condition I cannot get elective surgery for right now (ibuprofen fucks your stomach) but knowing it can be frozen is super useful

thanks a ton, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. this + the comments on reheating are giving me some ideas on simple shit I could freeze up. rice is simple enough to cook i don’tsee a need to freeze it, and can add curry sauce for a simple meal. TY!

(And thanks to the folks I didn’t quote directly, TBH been pretty depressed so hopefully eating healthier will help. Plus, TBH moving to a brown rice + tofu + random curry based diet will be more affordable.)

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Freezing is a different story. I haven’t noticed frozen rice dishes coming out any different than fridged ones. But I’ve never frozen straight rice to see if it comes out any better.

Generally speaking not a lot of leftovers come out of the freezer without some damage.

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Depends on the knob, believe it or not.

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My wife picked up a recipe for this and we have made it twice. It only takes about 90 minutes to make (55 minutes of it are baking). The cheese used is cheddar, not traditional cream cheese of the American version. Light and fluffy and sweeter than you would expect from that kind of cheese.
(Not a picture of the one she made)

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