Recipe swap (and other food related stuff)

[Róisín]

Seconding Buteo that I too would like the recipe for Athena’s muffins! And midwestmutt, your soda bread looks delicious. Good with fresh butter, when my gran made soda bread my brother would always be sure to have freshly churned some butter to go with it. Soda bread has a lot in common with Aussie damper.

[midwestmutt]

I buy imported Irish butter which has a purer standard of quality than the corporate chemical-laden butter made here. Soda bread goes great with jam too since it's a stick to your ribs poor man's bread.

[midwestmutt]

https://olivesnthyme.com/pecan-upside-down-cake/#ingredients
Here is the recipe I used for the pecan upside down cake. I used the 2nd measurement recipe for a larger cake since I used my 12 cup cast iron bundt pan. I think my only error was to lightly grease the pan with canola oil as another recipe recommended. Next time I will use my usual generous brushing of melted butter and bake it 10 minutes longer. I don't use sprays like Pam.

[Yastreb]

Back in 2021 I posted about Drachinifel, a "naval historiographer" who covers naval warfare from the earliest times to the mid-20th century with a mixture of hard facts, pop culture references (including Monty Python, Star Wars, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Warhammer 40K) and dry wit, and his video about naval food (specifically, Royal Navy food) of the 18th Century, in which he did some practical food preparation and then consumed the results.

Well, he's done a similar video about the daily fare of sailors serving in (and against) the Spanish Armada.

[Yastreb]

I found this in the comments section of a blog that I frequent.

CHINESE STYLE BRAISED BEEF SHANK WITH GRAVY
Take 2 lb beef shank. Trim away as much as possible from the pieces. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
In about 2 tablespoons mild-tasting oil, sauté a generous spoonful each of minced garlic and ginger, if available, and a small onion (diced). When the vegetables are fragrant, add the beef shank and brown on all sides.
Deglaze the pan with a teaspoon of mild-tasting vinegar. (If using dried garlic and/or ginger, add it at this point.) Add 1/3 cup soy sauce and a teaspoon of sugar.
If not using a slow cooker with a metal insert, move the shank pieces into a slow cooker and pour the stock base you just made around them. At this point you may pile carrot and/or potato chunks around the meat, if desired.
Add a quart of water (more if needed to submerge everything), cover, and slow cook all day, until the meat falls off the bone.
Two hours before dinnertime, take the shank pieces out. There will be a lot of on the surface of the broth. Skim carefully. Then put about half a cup of cold water into a container that has a tight-fitting lid. Add 1/4 cup cornstarch, cover, and shake vigorously. Pour this mixture into the broth and stir until it begins to thicken.
When cool enough to handle, carefully cut and pick the meat away from the shank bones, remove any remaining fat, dice the meat, and return to the ‮top‬‎. Leave on the Warm setting while you make the rest of the meal. (You can make these dishes one at a time, BTW--no need for multiple timers.)
VIETNAMESE STYLE RED CABBAGE
You need a big skillet for this one. Cut a small red cabbage into spoon-sized pieces, rinse, and set aside. Heat some mild-flavoured cooking oil in the skillet on Medium and sauté a spoonful of minced garlic (if available) until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with a tablespoon of mild vinegar, then add a teaspoon EACH of fish sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar or molasses, and hot sauce. Rinse the cabbage again and put it into the skillet in two layers, adding salt and pepper to the first layer. Put the lid on and leave to cook. Check and stir occasionally. It's done when it has the texture of al dente pasta. Turn off the heat and leave the lid on.
RICE
If using 15-minute white rice, start it now.
SIMPLE STIR-FRIED KABOCHA
Microwave a kabocha for 2 to 4 minutes to soften it slightly. Cut off about a pound and a half--half of a dinner-plate-sized kabocha. Cool and refrigerate the unused part.
Scoop the seeds out and use in another recipe or discard. Cut away the stem.
Cut the kabocha into manageable hunks, then slice each one as thinly as you can manage--make slices as thin as a cracker of you can.
Heat some oil in your wok as usual. Add the kabocha with some salt and about a teaspoon of sugar. Stir-fry vigorously. If you have an old kabocha that has partly cured, it may not want to soften before it starts to char. In that case, grab the lid off the cabbage, fill it with water, dump that in, and keep stirring.
When the kabocha is tender (note that the rind of an old kabocha is edible but may be tough to chew) dinner is ready.
Serves two adults, two hungry teens, and the third one who's between jobs and gets his dinners here for now. Everything reheats.

[Keep Looking]

The Chinese-style beef shank reminds me of a recipe my mother makes which is a version of a Cantonese beef stew - chunks of stewing beef; star anise and ginger; root vegetables like daikon radish and carrot; and a sauce made with light soy, dark soy, oyster sauce and Chinese rice wine. It's warm and homey and a good way of getting some red meat into your diet using economically priced cuts. My mother usually throws in some leafy greens at the very end as well (for extra vegetable content).

[wavewright62]

That looks amazing!  I really want to try that take on braised cabbage, yum yum.

The recipe does not mention using the skimmed beef fat anywhere else in this meal - what would a cook in that kitchen use the tallow for?  What, if any, role does tallow or chicken schmaltz play in Southeast Asian cooking?

[JoB]

what would a cook in that kitchen use the tallow for?

... other than making candles to sell to Denmark?

[Yastreb]

I found some other recipes on the same blog.

Tonight's dinner depends on having access to slabs of halibut. Not fillets or steaks--slabs.

FOIL-BAKED HALIBUT
You need 2 pounds of halibut slabs. When parting out a big halibut for home use, people generally cut book-sized slabs from the fillet--about an inch and a half thick and about a pound each. Even if you don't need to serve that much fish at one sitting, try this with 2 pounds, because the leftovers can be used to make quick meals.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 baking pan with aluminum foil. You want plenty of overhang. If you have to use multiple sheets of foil, fold one edge of each piece and interleave them to create a watertight seam.
Put the halibut on the foil. Season with salt and pepper. Let a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar fall on each piece. Cover with very thinly sliced or finely chopped onion. (If you have trouble cutting things up, by all means try onion flakes. But I would soak them in something first.)
Fold the foil over the pieces of fish to create a nice packet and bake. Check it in half an hour. The fish is done when it is opaque in the middle of the thickest part of each piece.

BRAISED CABBAGE AND CARROTS WITH DILL
You can make this with fresh or dried dill or with the juice from a jar of unsweetened pickles.
Core, trim, and chop half a head of green cabbage. Rinse in a colander and set aside.
Cut four large carrots into thick disks. Cover the bottom of a skillet with them. Add a dollop of margarine or butter. Pour in pickle juice or water, until the carrot disks are almost submerged. Cover and turn the heat to High.
When steam begins to jet from the skillet, reduce heat to Medium, take off the lid, and pile in the cabbage. If not using pickle juice, season the cabbage generously with salt, pepper, and dill when you have put in half of the cabbage, then again after you put in the rest.
Put the lid back on and leave to cook. When it starts to smell a little bit cooked, stir gently but thoroughly. Let it cook a few minutes longer, until everything is tender.