What's for dinner?

More Instant pot meals here; ham and bean soup. It tastes like Campbell's bean with bacon but better. Very robust, deep, filling and flavourful. Home cooks keep really great texture too. :agave:


Here's the bean and ham prep. I kept some of the previous smoked picnic ham cook and chopped it up.



I also kept a few ham bones from those cook in the freezer for this soup cook. This takes the broth up a big notch.



The Instant pot is definitely filled, ready to cook.



Done and served. It was a great soup. Even using a vegetable broth base, you can see the impressive ham bone contribution to the broth with all the oils at the surface.



Cheers and have a great weekend.

Some more meals here. Custom butcher order coarse grind chuck beef scratch made to into a 1/2 pound burger with ~ 25% fat, grilled on the Weber summit. Includes mustard, garden diced onion, sweet corn relish, american cheese, lettuce, pickles and a toasted sesame bun. :agave::agave:



Made up an asian stir fry meal in the wok with a cold shrimp cocktail dish as well. :agave:



This wok stir fry is vegetarian and scratch from what I had in the house/fridge. It's fungus based with shiitake mushrooms and basswood black fungus. To that I added garden onion, yellow sweet pepper, celery, diced fresh garlic, sesame seeds, chili flakes, cashews, hoisin sauce and a bit of soy sauce. :agave:



Cheers

Nice looking burger kw.
Anyone buy an Instant Pot this weekend? Had one in my cart and the wife said we didn't need any more stuff in the kitchen.

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Thx @Joe Bass. Super tasty burger. If you keep this lurking in your freezer it makes restaurant burgers previously enjoyed weak .

The Instant pot deal on Amazon.ca was amazing with the Duo 60 7 function 6 quart model being offered at $65. Sold out now. I've had mine for almost two years now and have been posting a number of great meals from it here on this thread. Cheers to anyone to picked one up for themselves or as a gift. I already rode this appliance wave and gave a bunch out as gifts last year. It's still a great gift idea for anyone who cooks at home and wasn't an early adopter. Very popular.

I made stuffed pork tenderloin again and grilled them on the Weber Summit. :agave:



The first pork tenderloin is stuffed with cream cheese and pepperoncinis with some of their pickling juice. I also add some pickled California hot chili peppers for added spiciness. The second pork tenderloin is stuffed with a mixed dried fruit and blueberry pecan buttermilk pancake. With maple syrup.






Large pictures again. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

I made Instant pot potato salad again (you can see it in the previous pork tenderloin meal). :agave::agave:



This time I also included diced fresh red sweet pepper and celery to the potato salad. This stuff is awesome. :agave::agave:



Instant pot sous vide egg bites (like Starbucks). These include feta cheese, monterey jack, cheddar, mozarella, marble cheese, grated grana padano, cottage cheese and heavy cream. Plus MX hot sauce and extra thick cut bacon crumble. I also added madras mild curry spice to two ramekins as well . :agave:



Cheers

Making a Xmas fruitcake. There’s nearly a kilo of chopped figs, dates, sultanas, raisins, glacé cherries and dried peel in there and by the time it’s finally done there’ll be a shed load of brandy in it too. Got Californian brandy as it’s suprisingly good and quite a bit cheaper than French. It’ll be a week or two before it’s done. Recipe calls for a kilo of marzipan on it too and also a covering of apricot jam before the marzipan and icing.

We make one which was my great grandmothers recipe, or she was the first in the family that could write... Scot farmers, don't judge.

It has a metric bucket of fruit and peel, no marzipan as that wasn't invented. It calls for brandy if available, rum if available and at worst whisky, but only the worst whisky the best to be reserved for guests. Under no circumstance should the liquor be set aside, the risk of mold or rot is too much and there has been a significant investment in preserves. Her recipe book is a riot to read.
It costs a small fortune to make a decent fuitcake.

crankcall said:

We make one which was my great grandmothers recipe, or she was the first in the family that could write... Scot farmers, don't judge.

It has a metric bucket of fruit and peel, no marzipan as that wasn't invented. It calls for brandy if available, rum if available and at worst whisky, but only the worst whisky the best to be reserved for guests. Under no circumstance should the liquor be set aside, the risk of mold or rot is too much and there has been a significant investment in preserves. Her recipe book is a riot to read.
It costs a small fortune to make a decent fuitcake.

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A small fortune and a dose of diabetes......there’s a fair bit of sugar and treacle in this. Xmas comes but once a year....perhaps that’s a good thing.

I made another extra thick Instant pot chocolate cheesecake. :agave::agave:



I drizzled some sweetened condensed milk leftover from the tapioca pudding prep on the servings. :agave::agave:






Cheers

I thawed out some frozen Instant pot roasted cherry tomato soup I made earlier this year with two varieties of fresh garden cherry tomatoes. I thoughtfully omitted the whipping cream ingredient in the portion I froze, so after thawing I added the whipping cream in after reheating a portion to eat. I also added a generous amount of freshly hand grated grana padano Italian parmesan style cheese. This soup is excellent. :agave::agave:



This is Instant pot baked ziti. It's simple, basic and tasty comfort food using premium ingredients. This recipe has custom butcher coarse cut single grind chuck beef at 25% fat and grind pork chuck too (50/50 ratio), plus shredded grana padano Italian parmesan style cheese, shredded habanero 3 cheese blend (monterey jack, cheddar and pizza mozzarella), cottage cheese, marinara sauce, ziti pasta (rigatoni pasta is very similar), fresh diced garlic, diced fresh onion and a bit of whole oregano and whole basil seasoning. Super fast and easy cook. 5 minute setting in the Instant pot. Very tasty. :agave:



I really enjoy fresh breads. This is fresh sourdough bread which I really really enjoy . It was warmed up in the microwave with one piece being covered in homemade raspberry jam from my yard and the other piece having butter pads across it with a good dash of salt (I use unsalted butter). :agave:



Here's some cheese advice to anyone who wants it. I think everyone should try fresh Grana Padano cheese in a block (which you then hand shred) or the freshly shredded option some stores carry. This stuff reminds me of Parmesan cheese but it's like 10X better than the cheap Parmesan I've had. Grana Padano is one of the only cheeses out there I take the time to hand shred. Thankfully, it's also easy and fast to hand shred and a little goes a long way flavour-wise. I now mix Grana Padano in many cheese combo dishes. You should too. It's also acknowledged by name in many recipes as a core ingredient in classic finish/style risotto. Use it anywhere you have eggs, over home-made cheese nachos, with pasta, on salads, etc. A while back I decided to keep Grana Padano in the house at all times; it's a swiss army knife cheese .


Cheers

EDIT: fixed country of origin for grana padano cheese.

I thought grana padano was another Italian variant of parmesan.

Grana padano is made with skim milk, parmesan with whole milk. Both come from the same general area in Italy but the Grana region is bigger and has more production so its a bit less expensive.
Grana tends to be a bit milder taste and less salty/nutty so it lends better to things like risotto.

If you can justify the price buy cheese by the piece, the grated tubs are rind and everything, usually when its dried out at the store it gets ground up.

The bottles of shake parmesan have been known to have fillers and even food grade "wood' dust.

crankcall said:

If you can justify the price buy cheese by the piece, the grated tubs are rind and everything, usually when its dried out at the store it gets ground up.

The bottles of shake parmesan have been known to have fillers and even food grade "wood' dust.

Click to expand...

agree completely

after developing a hankering for Parmagiano Reggiano
that ground up stuff marketed in NA as Parmesan is seriously substandard

folks from the Parma region should lobby ($$) for some protection
the Scots did it with great success for their single malt whiskey

The ginormous blocks of Parmesan from Costco are fantastic value if you can manage to get through a kilo of the stuff before it starts to go green. In fact all cheese at Costco is great value. I’ve priced some of it up at way less than half the price of regular grocers for things like Roquefort or Stilton.

I quite like putting grated Manchego cheese on food for a change up sometimes too. Can have a strong flavour though.

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Manchego has an awesome briny taste, grind some up and put it in meatballs made with chorizo sausage meat, or hot italian if that's what you got.

Cube leftover bread, cube a fresh tomato or drain a can of diced tomatoes , add oregano and olive oil and make a salad. salt and pepper to taste.

open a dry red and give me 30 mins travel time.....

jc100 said:

I thought grana padano was another Italian variant of parmesan.

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Yup, my mistake with the wrong region. Fixed my last post.

crankcall said:

Grana padano is made with skim milk, parmesan with whole milk. Both come from the same general area in Italy but the Grana region is bigger and has more production so its a bit less expensive.
Grana tends to be a bit milder taste and less salty/nutty so it lends better to things like risotto.

If you can justify the price buy cheese by the piece, the grated tubs are rind and everything, usually when its dried out at the store it gets ground up.

The bottles of shake parmesan have been known to have fillers and even food grade "wood' dust.

Click to expand...

JavaFan said:

agree completely

after developing a hankering for Parmagiano Reggiano
that ground up stuff marketed in NA as Parmesan is seriously substandard

folks from the Parma region should lobby ($$) for some protection
the Scots did it with great success for their single malt whiskey

Click to expand...

Thx! Great info Crankcall. I seriously enjoy Grana Padano from Italy in the small blocks I pick up and hand shred. It looks pricey for the size but it's very dense and outlasts a similarly priced oka cheese in my experience ($10 to $10 for example) as a little goes a long ways. I love that Grana Padano is not as strong as actual Parmesan cheese, but still with a beautiful and notable flavor. And it works anywhere you think cheese works. I actually have found some fresh grated tubs that were awesome, but not so much if they aren't fresh, and the powdered versions should be avoided since it's basically old and dried cheese.

JavaFan, cool on the Parmigiano Reggiano. That's another great similar cheese, and I have it around about half the year. It's a little more pronounced and sour so it's not my number one. I have a great Instant pot lasagna recipe that requires it and then keep the extra around to use up as another great cheese option across a lot of dishes. Nice!

Both Italian regional Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses are great and widely available at a pretty reasonable price. They can be found at most mid-range grocers or higher.

crankcall said:

Manchego has an awesome briny taste, grind some up and put it in meatballs made with chorizo sausage meat, or hot italian if that's what you got.

Cube leftover bread, cube a fresh tomato or drain a can of diced tomatoes , add oregano and olive oil and make a salad. salt and pepper to taste.

open a dry red and give me 30 mins travel time.....

Click to expand...

Thx for the info. Manchego is a great cheese. Love all the cheese talk here. Grana Padano is a more flexible cheese for me that gets lots of general use. I enjoy Manchego best on its own with crackers/tapenade/charcuterie in a snack or meal serving.

Bring on the cheeses. Cheers

On any given day there will be a block of parmesan , grana paderno, asiago and fontina in the fridge, a couple cheddars and blue cheese when the wifes not around.

We cook a lot of italian here, and the northern italians cheese everything so it seems.
I keep fontina since is has a low melting point and it melts and gets browned easily without wrecking what im cooking heating the heck out of it to melt the cheese.

crankcall said:

On any given day there will be a block of parmesan , grana paderno, asiago and fontina in the fridge, a couple cheddars and blue cheese when the wifes not around.

We cook a lot of italian here, and the northern italians cheese everything so it seems.
I keep fontina since is has a low melting point and it melts and gets browned easily without wrecking what im cooking heating the heck out of it to melt the cheese.

Click to expand...

I always have Jarlsberg and a decent cheddar in the fridge. Jarlsberg is a cheaper compromise for Comte for me. Nothing nicer than a plain baguette sandwich with some good Comte in it.