Quarantine Cooking

[deluxestogie]

Quarantine Cherry Cheesecake

This is not a fake, fluffed-up, squishy cheesecake. This is a firm, filling cheesecake. It is conceptually easy, but entails blending something that doesn't want to be blended, and dirty dishes and implements that are a bit of work to clean.

The cherry topping can be replaced with a can of any fruit "pie filling"--apple, blueberry, etc.

Ingredients:

• 1 Graham Cracker pie crust--pre-made
• 1 lb. Cream Cheese (two 8-oz. packages), brought to room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 can of Cherry pie-filling

The blending doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
• Pound, hack, chop and smash the cream cheese with a sturdy tool and strong arm, until sort of smooth.
• Add the sugar, egg, vanilla, and lemon juice.
• Blend until fairly consistent. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.
• Pour and scrape into the pie crust.
• Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes, then start checking with a toothpick every 10 minutes. When the toothpick comes out of the center clean, then it is done. The surface should be golden brown, possibly fissured. (The cheesecake pictured required 50 minutes in the oven.)
• Allow to cool to room temperature (it will appear to deflate), then top with the pie filling.
• Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

This recipe can be made in duplicate, with the second cheesecake going into freezer prior to topping.

Try not to over-bake.

Although the entire can of pie filling is a bit too much, put all of it on top anyway.

Serve on a small plate with a tiny fork. As tempting as it may appear, only a frustratingly narrow slice is more than filling.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I made hue today. It took 45 minutes.

1L of homemade beef stock.
1L water

About three square inches of frozen lemongrass in a seive, simmered in the stock for ten minutes, then squeezed, then removed

A Tbsp annatto seeds simmered in a tbsp of oil for a few minutes, drained, seeds trashed, oil put in stock.

1.5 tbsp sugar,
2tbsp fish sauce,
salt ≈ 1 tsp
1 tsp of that super hot Asian chilis in oil stuff

Rice noodles and fixings (cilantro, basil, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced shallots and onions, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, or whatever)

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Oh yeah. There's supposed to be sliced beef. Didn't have any.

 

[deluxestogie]

I made hue today.

Is it just a spicy sauce to put onto the sliced beef, or is the sliced beef part of the sauce?

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Hue is a Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

You make the broth as above
cook the noodles separately,
have whatever raw fixings you want handy, including the beef sliced real thin.

Put suitable amounts of room temperature noodles and fixings in your favorite soup bowl.
Then you ladle the hot broth into the bowl.

If you exclude the chili oil, it's mild enough for a codger.

 

[jclif43]

That sounds delicious.

 

[deluxestogie]

All "Cream of Asparagus Soup" available commercially is mostly glue. It tastes good, but is far better when made from scratch.

This is easy to make.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

• asparagus--diced. However much you want in there. Freshly harvested asparagus is ideal.
• chicken broth--2 cups.
• whole milk--1-1½ cups. (You can use cream or half&half, if you are fat deficient.)
• sprinkle of chives--optional.
• sprinkle of dill weed--optional, when served.

Directions

1. simmer the diced asparagus in the chicken broth, until much of the water has evaporated.
2. add milk to the volume needed for soup.
3. warm it slowly up to serving temperature

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Working on my rolling skills.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Gluten morgen!






I'm not actually in quarantine, but I had the night off.

 

[Charly]

You were busy ! Good job !

 

[tullius]

Hummus w/ paprika, olive oil, zhug, and pita, all scratch.

 

[ArizonaDave]

You can accelerate the process by adding grape or potato skins to the flour, or any local fruit.

Potato skins are fantastic because of it's composition. I read it somewhere on "Ask a prepper" website. I like reading the old ways articles there.

 

[GreenDragon]

Tonight’s indulgence was slow cooked (then fried) carnitas with refried beans. Sorry no picture; they disappeared as fast as I could pan fry each batch!

 

[deluxestogie]

You are what you eat.

Tonight I was a total wiener. Actually a double-wiener. And pretty corny. But by dessert, one might consider me to have become a nutty buddy.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

At 25¢ a pun, that's $1 please, sir.

 

[deluxestogie]

At 25¢ a pun, that's $1 please, sir.

It's in the mail. Trust me.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

It's in the mail. Trust me.

Bob

All proceeds go to Santa's Anonymous Edmonton. The kids will thank you.

 

[deluxestogie]

If you're hungry, then one or two sardines taste okay. Eating a whole can of sardines is not that much fun. They are different when breaded and fried. Sardines in a can are already pre-cooked, so you can fry them to whatever degree of crunchiness you prefer.

I used a 99 cent (from the dollar store) tin of sardines packed in soy oil. These are not fillets. The skin is still there, and the bones are still there. Without washing or drying them, I took them straight from the can (Boy, were they packed in there!), plopped them into a plate of seafood breading, then placed them into hot oil. Cooking time is theoretically ~3 minutes per side, but I just left them alone, frying for about 7 minutes in ¼ inch of vegetable oil. The only additional item was a little dipping dish of soy sauce.

One can will make one main serving, or a side dish for two.

The crunchy-fried sardines are delicious. The tiny bones not even detectable within the crunchy breading. Just like deep fried catfish, you can use whatever sauce you like--or no sauce at all.

Bob

 

[CobGuy]

I happen to have a can right now that I was wondering what to do with ... thanks!

~Darin

 

[deluxestogie]

For ages, I've always had a few cans of sardines, a few cans of Spam, and a can of corned beef in the pantry. Every two or three years, it's a project to consume them before they are so far beyond their expiration dates that even I won't eat them. I mostly buy them for long-storage protein. I'm not all that fond of the sardines or Spam, but the fried sardines hit the spot. (Canned corned beef is great when I first open it. Always made into a sandwich. But it's a whole lot of corned beef for me to consume sequentially over a week. Sometimes I end up freezing half of it for when I'm not as tired of it.)

Bob