The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

Making a pumpkin pie from scratch one of these days.

How did you do the squid, 'cat? I'm curious, cause I don't know anything about preparing squid at all, beyond "batter-and-deep-fry", and that's not what I want most of the time.

Lera: good fortune with that. It's time consuming, but worth it in the end result. Just make sure you get a pie pumpkin.

edited 22nd Oct '12 4:26:08 AM by Madrugada

The Asian grocery has big bags of dried shredded squid, it looks like noodles. I've looked at about six different recipes for the dressing and the two constants are red pepper paste and sesame oil. Some of the variations include: soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame seeds, honey, sugar, fish sauce etc. I'm going to do ginger, honey and soy with the sesame oil and red pepper paste.

Mum gave me a small pumpkin when I was down by hers. I'm now torn. I kind of want to curry it, as it's not a pie-type, but looks to be one of the starchier ones. Hmmmmm...

That, or I could just roast it and see...

Yes, there are clearly labeled pie/sugar pumpkins in my local grocer's. I know how to cook butternut squash, and it's apparently the same principle. Cut, de-seed, bake, scoop out and add spices.

Why they've started selling Christmas items but hold off on pumpkin pies till the week of Halloween is beyond me.

Because it's retail, and common sense rarely lives there?

And, I'm going to do a two-step: roast and stew.

edited 22nd Oct '12 12:09:41 PM by Euodiachloris

I have a big pot of beef stock working in the oven. Yes, in the oven. I started with the leftovee pot liquor from the most recent pot roast (so it's got lots of onions and carrot fragments, some potato, and shreds of beef) then I dumped in all the bones from the freezer (from rib roasts, pork chops, and roast chickens). Added half a bottle of red wine, about a quarter cup of molasses, a healthy shot of soy sauce and one of Worchestershire sauce, and lashings of black pepper. Then about 6 cups of water to bring up the level enough to coverall the bones. It's been in the oven at 250 for the last several hours. I've found the oven uses less gas than the burner for a pot that size for that long, and I'm less likely to let to cook dry if I leave it longer than I expected.

^ That's part of it. Another part is that as far as marketers are concerned, pumpkin pie is for Thanksgiving, not Halloween.

edited 22nd Oct '12 3:30:52 PM by Madrugada

Oh, well. I've never worked in a grocer so I can't expect seasonal supplies to make sense.

Ended up getting enough for two pies at the price of one. Which was nice.

edited 22nd Oct '12 5:58:10 PM by Leradny

Squid salad update. The recipe I used called for two tablespoons of red pepper paste and that was too much. I did some fiddling and this is edible but next time I will use one tablespoon that stuff is HOT. I think I am addicted to squid prepared like this. I'm also thinking that dressing the squid with a vinaigrette with some leafy greens and some shreds of dried fruit and maybe an avocado would be lovely, if not Korean.

I found pate on sale at the grocers and there will be Vietnamese sammiches in my future.

@Maddy: Oh, I love my cephalopods. My favourite dishes:

• Charcoal grilled baby octopus with kiwi, lemon and pepper.
• This fantastic stir-fried(?) chilli squid dish I had at yum cha, but I can't recall the name.
• Sweet and sour calamari. It's a great summer dish, and very colourful with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and pineapples.
• Dried squid is a nice snack, but an acquired taste (and smell).

@Yuan: I had baby octopi at Greek Fest a couple of years ago and it was one of those "not doing that again" moments. But you give me courage. And I am stealing all of the recipes you gave Mads.

Making muffins at 10pm tonight. Making monkey bread tomorrow morning.

the muffins are a little bit of an experiment—I used a classic chocolate chip muffin recipe, but added half a small jar of blackberry preserves during the dry ingredients sifty part. The batter tasted scrumptious, so here's hoping.

Monkey bread should be fun!

True cookery knows no schedule-based limitations.

@blackcat: I will post a proper recipe for sweet and sour calamari soon. Or as close as I can get to a proper recipe, as my dad is one of those cooks who don't write down anything and change their recipes each time they cook.

I wish I could remember what that spicy squid dish was called. It wasn't deep fried like salt and pepper squid (which is also awesome). I've only had it at one yum cha restaurant, and even the memory is fading now.

The grilled octopus* isn't a main dish. We normally have it when my mum wants to do a family barbecue sort of thing on spring/summer evenings. We use a very small grill and will spend a few hours slowly cooking, eating finger food and chatting. Though the slow eating means we'll munch through an astonishing amount of grilled octopus, tandoori lamb cutlets, honey soy chicken drumsticks and veggie skewers (mushroom, sweet potato, baby eggplant, pineapple and carrot).

*My advice for octopus is lemon and pepper. Lemon and pepper seems to be good for most seafood dishes, come to think of it. And now I'm craving this foil-wrapped bake of lemon and pepper mullet my parents made once, and never again...

edited 22nd Oct '12 11:40:47 PM by Yuanchosaan

I wish i could find fresh octopus around here....I <3 octopus

I had tea smoked duck and chicken feet last night. Yum.

Ooh, feet? How'd they taste?

Similar to a chicken wing but with more and tinier bones.

Cooked pumpkin really does smell like carrot.

I wonder if people make carrot pie like pumpkin pie? I don't much like cooked carrots although I do like squash and sweet potatoes.

A quick google search shows that the do make pie out of carrots. You'd just need to purée it really well. I've never tried it personally, but I make amazing carrot cake.

Indeed.

Currently I don't like any form of heated carrots. I don't know, I just like to eat them fresh, cool and hard.

I like carrot juice a lot. And I think I'm going to tackle the Shima Carrot Cake this weekend. But you can keep the cooked carrots over there, away from me.

edited 26th Oct '12 2:42:07 PM by blackcat

I love cooked carrots, though please not just boiled or steamed. At least sauté them in butter. The best are carrots from some kind of tasty stew.