It’s once again an Australia Time Friday! It’s FRIDAY!!!!
We’ll not be having Australian Lamb and wine today. I’m moving that to this weekend. Today, in the USA, it’s Turkey Day.
Stuffing is home made croutons (the left over bread from my recent escapades in bread making, cubed, toasted in the oven 10 minutes, then seasoned with poultry seasoning).
To this is added a diced medium onion, diced cup (250 ml) of celery, about the same shavings of carrots (use peeler to hive off wafers), and a good dose of poultry seasoning sprinkled over. I usually add a beaten egg to bind it a bit as I’m not fond of stuffing that flies all over the place “loose”, but decided to leave that out this year and see if my attitude has changed any ;-) About 1 stick of butter is melted and a cup of chicken stock (or in this case, bouillon reconstituted) are made ready. Pour in the butter drizzling it around, and then add stock as you mix it all together. First 1/2 cup, then by bits until it is moist and sticking together enough to grab a handful, but not so much that it’s wet and gloppy. TASTE a bit of it. Does it taste good? Now is when you adjust salt and pepper to taste. (I do a decent sprinkle over and 3 or 4 grinds of pepper, then mix and taste again). This time I also chose to add a few shakes of garlic granules.
Stuff the bird. Sprinkle it with poultry seasoning. (I added a garlic granule sprinkling this year. Why? Local Sprouts sells wonderful pre-cooked chickens. On the label it says it has garlic in the seasoning. I’m going for it!)
Sides will be mashed potatoes, gravy, home made yeast rolls, butter, (the stuffing of course), yams (in brown sugar and butter), Bush’s baked beans, and buttered parsnips.
Can you say “Yum!”? I knew you could ;-)
In Other News
Y’all Down Under must help me on this one. Between the USA Voting Fraud investigation and my being the cook for the biggest cooking day of the year, I’ve just not had time to check on the Australian news du jour.
Does Australia use Dominion Voting Machines?
Are your politicians as corrupt as ours? As aligned with The Globalist Agenda?
Are you going to be stuffed laying on the couch in 5 hours, unable to move or think?
;-)
So Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
As chief cook and bottle washer, I’ll be more focused on kitchen than blog today, but I’ll check in. No, I’ll not be watching any “professional sports” today. I’m not sure there are any, anymore. It looks like all that’s available is Political Theatre and Emotional Decay Dramas…
Musings from the Chiefio 
Prez Elect H.R., here:
just reminded me about pies…
We have 2. 1 Pumpkin, and 1 peach…. Yeah, one pie / person. Ratio seems about right ;-)
Question on the buttered parsnips, E.M.; I brought them up here last year when we were talking garden stuff.
Anyhow, mom (and now me) cut them in about 1/8″ slices and then fried them in butter on fairly high heat until they are crispy. It’s almost like a thick potato chip. The sugars come out in the butter and they are sweet and crispy.
How did you fix the parsnips, E.M.?
“Will Fix”… we eat in about an hour 1/2…
You can roast them too, but our oven is busy.
I’m rather fond of the “plain” flavor of just boiled. Cut into chunks and simmer about 20 minutes with the pot un-covered so the piney flavor can escape, then drain and butter. A very mild buttery flavor that I like. (Fried and roasted are good too, in a more flavorful way).
Re Australia:
Voting machines are NOT used. Voting is compulsory*! You are (or should be) registered with the Electoral Office** who may issue with a Identification by post slip before the election but you can still vote without it. You line up at a polling station (you can vote ‘absentee’ if you are not near your local station) and you are checked off on printed roll before you get (usually) 2 voting papers (lower & upper house) which you fill in at makeshift desk stations before folding the papers and placing them in the appropriate box***. These then are counted by official with Party scrutineers present.
The figures are usually broadcast that night but the final result may not be known for about a week as ‘absentee’ and ‘postal’ votes are tallied.
The complication is the preference votes which is complicated. In theory you are expected to mark 1,2,3 etc. your choice from most likeable to least. If your first selected choice gets the least votes then he/she/it is eliminated (unfortunately only in the vote) and your second preference gets counted. The process is continued until a candidate gets a quota (enough votes). The theory is that the least disliked candidates will be selected.
With some upper house voting papers having 70-120 names (every candidate is listed****) the 2 big parties have introduced ‘optional preference’ voting in which you vote ‘above the line’ for the party or parties of your choice, which is what the majority do. The preferences are then distributed as per that parties prior registered arrangement. Thus if the Liberals (or Labor) get 35% of the overall vote then these get distributed down their list. A quota is the percentage necessary of 100 divided by the number of vacancies +1. Thus 6 vacancies, quota is 100/7 +1 or 14.29%. So the top name in the party list gets that many votes, then the remaining votes are used up progressively, so the top 2 get in and the third has t wait as preferences from minor parties are distributed.
*Actually you only have to turn up at a polling station and get your name ruled off. You can then discard the voting slips, fold them up and put them in the box blank or with rude comments written on them. You can also apply for a postal vote before the election, and you are checked before the appropriated voting slips are issued. About 25% now vote postal, but such votes arriving after polling day have to be checked for validity e.g. those coming from overseas have to be postmarked for before the close of polling n election day.
About 5% do not vote and the Electoral Office is supposed to fine them, but excuses may be accepted (was overseas and didn’t know about election, or the “none of the candidates were acceptable” often used by those in remote areas and where it is too expensive to contact them. Another 5% vote ‘informal’ e.g. write rude comments or give all candidates the same number, making it impossible to judge the voter’s intentions.
**Staffed by public servants who do occasional surveys of districts to check you still live at that address, that you are still alive etc.
*** the polling stations are mostly manned by paid volunteers (mostly teachers or public servants) as is the manual counting. The distribution of preferences, counting of absentee or postal votes etc. fall in the hands of the Electoral Office officials.
**** Senate elections bring out the weird, the wonderful, the wishful etc. like the Sex Party, the Shooters & Fishers, the Liberal Democrats, the Democratic Labor and parties that can afford the fee for each candidate listed (usualy 2) plus Independents. The major parties field the same number as there are vacancies without the last 2 having a chance. Preferential ‘deals’ by parties can lead to surprises; one candidate (Motoring Enthusiasts party I think) got 0.5% of the first preferences but got the last spot after preferences were distributed. He turned out to be much better than anyone expected but only lasted 1 term.
It is a cumbersome system but reasonably accurate. Whether it will be automated I don’t know as there are different preferential systems in State elections (the Tasmanian Hare-Clark which is too complicated to explain). Certainly far more accurate than the hodgepodge of the USA, and while there are some irregularities the Court of Disputed Returns can order a new election where these occur.
Well,
Dinner is done. Most of the foods (sides, breads, etc.) stored away as “left overs”. The Big Bird with stuffing reposes in the still warm oven, awaiting being cool enough to strip and pack into the fridge. And awaiting for my ambition to return ;-)
I’m in the “Post Turkey Repose Coma Position”, on my side on a comfy cushion surface. As are both dogs, having had a feed bowl full of turkey chunks… We do this every year as: 12 Lbs of Turkey is way too much for two people. It’s a whole lot of fun to watch the dogs, who NEVER think they are full, deal with “OMG I ate too much” waddle with swinging stomach over to their cushions and lay on their sides (as any other position has too much tummy pressure) and try to sleep it off…
We have been known to take photos of them in their Turkey Coma…
The stuffing was great, per the spouse “my best ever”. So keeping home made croutons and bit of garlic in the recipe “going forward”. Parsnips, mashed potatoes and the yeast rolls (made with French Baguette recipe but no steam) were a hit too. Turkey was nice, moist, tasty… I cook it covered until the last 30 minutes then brown it up.
Bush’s Baked Beans were largely skipped in favor of the “from scratch” stuff. On the plate, and flavor was nice and all, but the fork kept landing on the spuds, dressing, turkey, yams … Until too full and what didn’t make it to the mouth was about 2/3 of the beans. Oh Well. I’ll take that as a compliment ;-)
Nobody has made it to a pie yet…
“Whether it will be automated I don’t know as there are different preferential systems in State elections (the Tasmanian Hare-Clark which is too complicated to explain).”
“Preferential” systems are the dream of the progressives. Too complicated to explain to voters, that’s trouble. Too complicated for the vote counters, that’s the foot in the door for computer counting systems (that can be manipulated).
I’ve noticed news reports of first-time-cooks going the full meal deal.
My first thought was these people grew up without one of life’s essential skills.
My second thought was there is going to be much discarded food during the next few days.
We haven’t had to cook many such meals for quite a few years. We have been invited to feasts at two different families; nice and a problem at the same time.
More recently the happy volunteers of the local small town have a community dinner. The meet-&-greet is okay, but I find the food unexceptional, and that is being nice about it. We have contributed in past years, but this year the community appears to be swamped with food. That’s strange because I see news reports about other places NOT having enough food in the local pantries.
Anyway, Wednesday, my wife drove to town and picked up prepackaged hot meals – all the expected stuff. She didn’t have to leave the car. To compensate, I cooked brunch today with strawberries and ice cream over pecan pancakes, and bacon.
Happy times to all, even if Thanksgiving is not a celebration for you.
Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in the USA. I hope you have had a pleasant break from all the worries about the Presidential election. Best wishes frm DownUnder. Annie.
My wife and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary yesterday. We were married the day after Thanksgiving four years ago, and agreed to celebrate it on the Friday after Thanksgiving since I always have the day off and it’s easy to remember. For whatever reason, this year, we both remembered the calendar date (independently) and picked up a couple things for each other. We were each surprised the other remembered. So we ended up having a romantic dinner of Hardee’s chicken tenders and fries (her contribution) along with small chocolate cakes (my contribution) and two fingers of bourbon (hers). I also brought flowers, so all in all, nice evening.
Today we did a zoom meeting with some of her family. It seemed to mostly revolve around Covid and went on way too long, but eventually we got to dinner. Turkey (no stuffing or dressing, which I missed) mashed potatoes, gravy (but not giblet gravy :( ), brussel sprouts cooked with onions and bacon, green beans with sliced almonds, cooked carrot slices with candied walnuts (tastes similar to sweet potato casserole). There was homemade cranberry sauce made with the bourbon from last night, but we missed out on it (bowl didn’t make it to the table). A friend joined us and brought a pie (nice), and she left with a plate for later. We also made plates and took them to the wife’s mother and sister who didn’t want to go out. Our fridge is now full of food and I’ve got a turkey carcass broken down and stuffed into gallon ziploc bags that we’ll deal with tomorrow. A good day, all in all.
I hope that everyone else here had a great day and was able to spend the day at least overindulging in good food. Happy Thanksgiving!!
@YMMV ,, Australia has had preferential voting since 1922.
Why ?
Because the conservative vote was split between the the city based Liberal party ( and it’s predecessors ) and the rural based National party – formerly called the Country Party.
The Progressive vote as you call it was almost ALL ALP until the late 1990’s when the radical Greens started gaining votes of inner city female ‘intellectual’ types.
That system has worked to ensure mostly conservative inclined governments since 1922.
64 years Conservative & 34 ‘Progressive’ IE ALP but many ALP governments were actually quite conservative in character -courtesy of the need to maintain the flow of preferences from middle of the road voters.
So once again we have pioneered a democratic system which works far better than the old fashioned British based ‘Plurality” system. Yes the USA inherited it’s voting system from Mother England !It’s a real pity that the USA did not follow our lead instead.
@EM Answering your questions :
1 : No – see Graeme’s answer above.It’s all done by hand – no scanning or computers involved except in tallying the totals
2: : Corruption seems to be a universal humans character flaw but in recent years corrupt pollies have been banished to exile in Gomorah
3: Thanksgiving post prandial collapse due to gluttony ? Nah, it’s purely a USA thingies. Today’s a normal working day here.
@Nancy & John H.:
Having grown up in a restaurant family, and cooking my first fried egg at about 4 years old, I just can’t understand At All why anyone would not know how to cook. It’s easy, fun, and you get to eat whatever you like whenever you want it. It also reduces food costs A Lot compared to ordering in.
Oh Well…
I made dinner rolls where you roll up a walnut sized ball and drop it into the muffin tray, repeat. You can do three small or 2 medium I did the 2. Loved the crisp crunch outside, fresh bread inside… I’m going to be making a bunch of these and putting them in the freezer. Dinner rolls almost on demand. (2 frozen to a cup, let it defrost and rise, bake! Likely about 2 hours all told.)
I can’t stand the Not-A-Gravy in jars and cans they sell. The real deal is so much better and not that hard to make.
I’m not against “convenience foods”. I’ve been known to eat TV Dinners sometimes. But to be forced to live that way?… gak…
@BillInOz:
Strange system, but looks like it works. Lord Knows our system, as presently operated, is a disaster. It wasn’t always. Several decades back it seemed to be better, likely as the folks running it were more moral and everything was by hand (of necessity).
@Prez.Elect Pinroot:
Sounds like good goods and a good time had by all!
Our dinner was a bit high on carb choices too… then again, you get to choose how much turkey vs how much “other stuff” goes on the plate. I did a big chunk of turkey, and modest amounts of each of the starches… Except the dinner rolls… I seem to have eaten 3 or 4 of them ;-) But I DID load them up with lots of butter to get the carbs ratio down… yeah, that’s why, the carbs ratio ;-)
@Annie:
It was a nice break. We did have the “Kraken” drop today. (To which I asked on another thread: “What’s the best way to prepare a Kraken for Thanksgiving? Kraken is a dish best served cold…”)
But mostly I was absorbed into cooking, then clean up, and then post cooking Turkey Coma… Managed to watch a few hours of Faux Trek – some Star Trek Fan Movies. “Hidden Frontier” was this set. Not too bad, actually, once you figure out the order…)
I still have to lay on my side to be really comfortable ;-)
Trust everyone here has had a good Thanksgiving and is in appropriately post-celebratory mood. May all your turkeys end up eaten and not in the White House!
@ E M, ..If there are more than two significant political parties, the English plurality system does not work that well. The UK till last December illustrates the issues perfectly. Conservatives, Labor, Lib/Dems, Brexit party and Greens. Bloody chaos.
( Plurality system : the candidate with the most votes in an electorate wins even if it’s only say 30% of the vote )
I’ve no idea who devised our preference system we have here but it allows political parties to form what are effectively ‘coalitions’. So the rural/farm based Country party in 1923 backed the city based conservative party and thus helped them gain & stay in government most of the time ever since. Naturally policies reflect the interests of both conservatives populations. The key thing is it’s not a winner take all system.
And yes it also permits a coalition of ‘progressive’ parties. But such a government has happened only once in Australian history – 2010-2013 and it got a bloody big boot up the bum in 2013 as folks realised that it was being driven by a very Greenist genda.
Clarification of my previous comment. I was lumping together preferential vote systems with proportional vote systems. Two different things. It’s the proportional systems I dislike, because you are voting for a party instead of a person.
Preferential systems make sense when there are more than two choices. Without them, you get strategic voting. You know your first choice can’t win, so you vote for the lesser choice which does have a chance. Which perpetuates the two party system. Yet, with even small third parties, vote splitting can affect the results when the race is close between the major parties.
“If there are more than two significant political parties, the English plurality system does not work that well. […]
( Plurality system : the candidate with the most votes in an electorate wins even if it’s only say 30% of the vote )”
Yeah, that’s bad. Which is why progressives want proportional systems where it’s not winner take all.
I want to be able to have a representative who votes with my region in mind, not one who votes strict party line.
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
That’s strange. Beats me what triggered that.
Has the dynamic duo’s team already taken control of the internet?
@President Elect Pinroot – my wife and I were also married the Saturday after Turkey day! But that was 18 years ago, so our anniversary is Monday. She does not remember the year or the date, but figures it out because my youngest son (who was in the wedding) turned 10 right after the wedding, so she checks his age and then remembers how long.
@philjourdan Hey, happy anniversary!!
Today (U.S. Sunday) was ‘Ham & Beans’ day. Yum!
Along with turkey, we had a spiral-sliced ham. After all of the good slices were eaten or dealt out to everyone to take home for leftovers, I had about 4 pounds of bone and ham to fix up.
I don’t like beans flavored with ham. I like HAM and beans; ham, ham, ham in every spoonful.
OK, so I sliced an diced up the ham, stripped the bones as close as I could, and threw everything into a 1-pound pot of beans. I soaked and rinsed the beans FOUR times to avoid the typical bean, ummmm,… aftershocks. I used the one-pound package of beans this time instead of the 2 to 4 pounds I’d normally make. LOTs of ham, few beans 😁 (Plus the kids swiped too much ham this year 😒)
My seasoning is simple and yum-dilly-umptious. I’ve been doing it this way for years.
Ham
Beans
Minced garlic
Diced onion, added at the beginning, middle, and end
Goya Adobo con cumino seasoning
Toasted black sesame oil.
That’s it. Nothing else.
Mrs. H.R. hates every one of those seasonings, though she tolerates cooked onions. She’s been sucking down my ham (& beans) for over 40 years and has been none the wiser. I quit telling her how I seasoned them after about the third batch, c. 1980.
I’ve been cutting back on the carbs. Normally, I’d make some cornbread to go with the ham and beans, and I almost ran out to the store just to get cornbread makin’s.
*sigh* much regret from the Mrs. and me, but I resisted the urge to have cornbread with the ham and beans. I offered to run to the store just for cornbread makings. We held firm… barely. There’s nothing like a slab of buttered hot cornbread at the bottom of a bowl waiting for a few heaping ladles of ham and beans to be poured over it.
Curse You H.R.!
Ham and beans and ham with onions, garlic and ham is one of my favorite holiday meals, but with 12 pounds of turkey and only 2 people, I could not justify adding a 20 lb ham, too!
So no ham and beans and ham with ham for me 8-{
My Way is roughly the same. Beans cooked in 2 changes of water, then ham in the third one (so as not to dilute the ham flavor). First one is an overnight soak most times, 3 hour “boil 6 minutes and sit” sometimes, so gets most of the Pentose Gas Generating Sugars out. 2nd change pretty much finishes it.
I’ve never used adobo or sesame oil in cooking. What do they add? (Yes, my beans are traditional a bit bland, salt, ham, pepper, onion, garlic about it for seasonings.)
Corn Bread. Sigh. For about 30 years I’ve had a corn reaction (result of eating some delicious Corn & Clam chowder when I had a 105 F fever… so from now on I only eat foods I hate when I have a fever lest my immune system think they are the cause…)
I’ve developed an OK but not quite the same substitute using Millet flour instead of corn. I’m supposed to try Sorghum at some point, or a mix of the two. Texture is about right, but flavor, while nice, just isn’t corn. Similar but different. Didn’t make that this year either, as I already had a baguette and half dozen yeast rolls (for 2…).
Something about growing up a Restaurant Brat cooking for dozens to hundreds and them someone says you only need 2 plates of food… WT? I can’t do that Jim… or maybe “I don’t think so Tim”.
FWIW, we’ve still got about a gallon of turkey meat plus sides in the fridge. Pies are gone, and I’ve got a new fresh loaf of bread (a big round), and the mashed potatoes were wiped out at lunch, leaving only a pan of dressing…
I think we can get it all gone by next Wednesday… Then maybe I’ll try making some ham and beans… Think a 5 gallon pot is enough for a 20 lb ham and 5 pounds of beans? ;-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobo
OK, vinegar base, salt garlic pretty much standards, oregano & paprika.
So adds acid, color, salt and garlic that I’m already doing separately, and oregano.
Other than the color, that I don’t care about, it is mostly going to add acid and oregano, so I can choose to do that myself. Oregano in beans? Sort of like Italian bean soups… I like Italian bean soups ;-) I’ll have to try the effect of vinegar. Adding it during the cooking would be bad as acid slows down the softening steps… But at the end might make a nice flavor lift…
So what does sesame oil add, other than oil?
Goya Adobo is my Go-To seasoning for grilled meats. It comes in two varieties; red cap is with pepper, green cap is with cumin. A bottle will set you back all of $2.something.The Mrs. doesn’t like cumin, so I buy the red cap and pop the top and add cumin. She’s never caught on.
Th-e-e-e-e-e best pork chops ever are seasoned with Goya adobo. My son and his wife like it so well that they intended to name their 1st kid ‘Adobo’. Seriously. (Wound up with fertility problems. Alas! No grandkids and no shot a a kid named Adobo. *heavy sigh*)
Get the crap “assorted pork chops”, usually a buck-plus per pound. Season both sides with Goya adobo and let it settle in. NUKE them on the grill until the fat is fairly crispy. (Did I mention that the crap assorted pork chops are the fatty cuts?) Just make sure you get crispy fat and don’t dry out the meat. Hard to dry out those crappy cuts, but it can be done if not careful.
It’s also great on steaks or hamburgers. Adobo is a warm, home cookin’ flavor. It is not a smash-mouth thing and it does not taste ‘Mexican’.
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Black or toasted sesame oil is kinda-sorta like adding liquid smoke, but without the mesquite or hickory flavor. It’s common in Asian cooking. When I do stir fry, it’s always garlic, ginger (toasted black) sesame, and soy.
The best pork-fried rice I ever had was from a joint in St. Louis when I worked for McDonnell-Douglas. It was heavy on the toasted sesame oil.
If you have a smoked ham that you are using for HAM… oh, and beans, it really brings out the ham flavor, again without hitting you in the mouth. And it really smooths out the beans.
I’m surprised you don’t have a bottle of black sesame oil on the shelf and at the ready.
BTW, ‘Adobo’ is a generic term for the Mexican seasoning. I’ve bought a half-dozen different brands of adobo, but there are none to compare to Goya adobo.
Ah, the black oil from toasted sesame seeds… The plain blond oil is used in things like injected drugs and as a generic cooking oil… So you are going for the toasted smoke add… Got it.
Not a big Asian cooking background. I do a nice Chinese Stir Fry and can make my own sushi / sashimi, but that’s about it. Never got into all the sauces and stuff. Looked at it once and figured I’d be 10 sauces and $40 into it just to get started, and likely would not use it up in time. I also do some frozen packaged Asian. Orange chicken. Pot Stickers. Basic heat and eat. (Looked into making my own but the pastry step has always slowed me down… so skipped it.)
I did run into a VERY HOT Sesame oil once, and that put me off of sesame oil for decades. Only lately found out that was not a natural sesame oil…
I love BBQ chops off the grill. Usually do a soy sauce & vinegar marinade, then seasonings and a quick turn at the fire… Sweet Baby Rays is my friend ;-)
I’ll look for the Goya Adobo, but ever since they got “boycotted” the Goya shelves have been kept pretty well sold out ;-)
@Prez. Elect H.R.:
I could not stand it any longer, now I have to thank you. Thanks!
Last night I started a pound of lima beans soaking. Today I made Limas & Spam.
My excuse is that it is all made with “Prepper Goods” and that I’m “testing my prep”…
I realized that when I do the “quick soak” for 5 minutes of boil then an hour or three of sitting, I then change water, cook, change, add flavorings and finish cook. Only 3 changes of water. BUT, when I do overnight, it’s 4 changes. Soak & dump. First Cook beans only. Second Beans only cook. Final cook with meat and flavors.
To the beans, I’ve added a pot covering single layer of Onion Chips (dehydrated) and a generous sprinkle of dehydrated garlic granules. Generous couple of grinds of pepper. This all at the start of the final flavor round of cooking. While that was coming up to the simmer, I diverged from my “usual” by adding about a tsp of Italian Seasoning (heavy on oregano) along with about a 1/4 tsp of Cumin / Comino ( I think it could likely take 1/2 tsp). Then diced a can of SPAM and added that. Simmer it all until done, then adjust salt and pepper. Note that SPAM is salty so leave the salt add to the end when some has leached into the liquids…
I’ve finished my first bowl full, with a light catchup condiment stirred in, and it is better than my “usual”. Clearly the Oregano (Italian seasoning) and Cumin (adobo part) matter. I’ve not yet tried a vinegar addition as they are still finishing the final step of “cook until the water starts to be soup” step ;-)
My conclusion?
A 100% Prepper Goods Limas & SPAM dish can be quite delish. I fear for the safety of the remainder of my Beans & SPAM Prep inventory… Not long for this world, I fear ;-)
Hmmm… I’ve never used vinegar with beans. I’ll have to splash on a bit and see what it tastes like.
Oh, and the Goya adobo is in part, onion and garlic powder and cumin, along with a few other things. I think oregano is one as well.
But you gotta snag a bottle of toasted sesame oil!
@H.R.:
I was using what I have to get close to the Adobo mix. Thus the garlic, onion, cumin and Italian seasoning (for the oregano). Also note that you DO use vinegar as there is some in Adobo.
(See my comment above about how an adobo mix is made for marinade and that vinegar is in it…)
So I’m thanking your for the Adobo pointer, but doing a DIY Prepper version based on what I’ve got in hand.
I’ve not put vinegar in yet as I need to figure out how much would be in an unknown sized dollop of Adobo…
Per toasted sesame oil: Have to learn more first. Like what’s a decent brand. Degree of toasting in different kinds. How to avoid the Fire Breathing kind. Where to buy it. Etc. So next shopping trip will include a while wandering down Sesame Row and reading a lot of bottles… But that’s a few days to week+ away.
I’ve not been aware that there is powdered vinegar, but I suppose so. How else do they get vinegar on salt and vinegar potato chips, if powdered vinegar wasn’t a thing? I didn’t know it was in Goya’s adobo.
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Just avoid all red sesame oil. :o) I don’t. I like it on my ramen noodles. Yup, a little goes a long way.
As for the dark toasted oil, I buy whatever I can find at a reasonable price. I’ve not noticed enough difference that I care. Best prices are at pan-Asian grocery stores. That’s where I’d buy all my Asian foods until the one near me lost its lease and moved about an hour away. Last bottle I picked up was Kroger house brand and it’s just fine.
Pardom my ignorance, but is Goya Adobo a powder and not a liquid?
I’ve never seen it, so assumed it was a match to the definition I found that said it was a marinade made with vinegar (onion, garlic, oregano …)
Is it just a powder with instructions to mix into vinegar?
It’s a powder, E.M.
Adobo is a term much like curry. It’s similar across different brands. If you have a decent ‘Hispanic’ food aisle, you might find 2, 3, or 4 brands of ‘adobo’ seasoning. I’ve tried others but the Goya adobo is the best.
I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m sure it would make a fine marinade. You provide some oil, vinegar, and maybe a squeeze of citrus, lemon or orange or both, shake in some adobo powder, mix it all up and it would be a dandy marinade.
But I just sprinkle the powder on meats dry and let it soak in for a bit. It’s the best thing for hamburgers, and chicken, and especially pork chops. And then there’s chili, beans, and stews. I’ve never used it on eggs. I’m not sure it would work with eggs.
I have a few little plastic containers of Goya adobo in my prepper stash. I have one for the trailer, too. And I always have some factory sealed as a backup in case I run out.
Here ya go. My favorite is the green top with cumin, though when I can’t get that, I buy the red top and add cumin. I don’t think I’ve ever bought the blue top.
https://www.goya.com/en/products/seasonings/adobo
Wow! I didn’t know Goya had so many variations of their Adobo. I’ve seen the blue, but have only bought the red and green.
They even have a hot version! I’ve never seen that one… nor any of the others, for that matter.
I’m going to have to check out a Hispanic or pan-Latino grocery and see if I can find the others.
Speaking of cumin, there is a study showing it is effective in preventing Covid.
“Study – Honey and Nigella Sativa For COVID-19”
A quick search shows it has been used for many things for thousands of years.
This is easier to get than Ivermectin or HCQ.
$7 at Walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Goya-Adobo-All-Purpose-Seasoning-Hot-8-Oz/51792793
THANK YOU, YMMV!
I will be using more than I usually do. I love cumin as a seasoning, and I particularly liked “No HNS related adverse effects” at the bottom of that graphic.
I might need to take it aside from cooking, as cooking may degrade the medicinal properties.
Interesting… I needed to read further down the page to Adobo Seco..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobo
But I blew past the “or seasoning”…. then further down:
So, ok Puerto Rican adobo seco…
@V.P. Elect Smith.
https://www.goya.com/en/products/mojo-criollo-marinade
This is my favorite marinade for boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t use it as a marinade, though. I inject it. I have one hell of a stainless steel injector that will tolerate some bits and pieces of seasonings without getting stopped up. I think I gave a smidge under $20 for it, but it’s worth every penny.
After washing and drying, I inject the chicken breasts throughout with that Mojo Criollo marinade and put them in a gallon baggie. Some of the marinade leaks out, so it does get a bit of traditional marinade.
I get my grill as hot as it will go; all 5 burners on high with the led down for a few minutes (not too long or you’ll damage your grill).
Then I positively nuke the chicken breasts, turning them once or twice to prevent burning until the are just done at the center. If you cook them too slow, all the juice cooks out and there’s no skin to save you.
You can serve them like that or, my favorite, cut the breast into about 1-1/2″ chunks. Then mix it with good meaty chorizo that you brown prior to cooking the chicken.
Lay down a bed of rice, put the chicken/chorizo mixture on top, and sprinkle with Monterey Jack or quesadilla cheese. It should be all hot enough to melt the cheese in a good bit.
P.S.That’s one of my go-to entertaining dishes for me. You have a rice cooker full of rice on ‘keep warm’, a crockpot full of the chicken/chorizo mix on low or warm, and a bowl of cheese at the side. It tastes just as good at the end of two or three hours – if it ever lasted that long – as it does when you started. People can make up small or large plates of that as they wish.
I also usually have tortillas on the side in case someone wants to make a burrito from it. Bowls of sour cream, guacamole, chopped onion, shredded lettuce, and dices tomato along with some sauces, the cheese is already there, and those that don’t care for the rice can chow down on the burrito form.
I also have out meatballs in marinara, and sub buns to make meatball subs with some mozzarella and parmesan to top it, and a crockpot of brats and Nathan’s coneys along with buns and the appropriate toppings.
You can serve a lot of people over a decent amount of time and have good food safety.
I am down to only 4 crockpots now. I don’t entertain 30 – 50 people any more, so I shed some of the crockpots and hot trays and cold condiment trays, bought at a restaurant supply and used for buffets.
Oh man! That sounds great…
Party at H.R’s place!!!
@YMMV:
Note they are talking about “Black cumin”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigella_sativa
Not regular cumin / comino. Cuminum Cyminum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumin
So different species and different chemical content.
“Note they are talking about “Black cumin”:”
Understood. However, this could be important, so linking it here was just convenient.
Different places have different responses and outcomes to the Sars virus. We can speculate about their mask-wearing customs and many other things to try to explain those differences. But there are so many differences! Food could be a big one. This particular one might not occur to most Westerners. Cod liver oil in Iceland. Sugar in the U.S. of A. Food which is important to the immune system, one way or the other. The lack of promotion of Vitamin-D and zinc and so on and the difficulty of getting cheap effective drugs is another. Black cumin may be worth trying.
@YMMV:
I was pointing it out as “Black Cumin” are seeds you get at the Indian Food Store while Regular Cumin is found in the Mexican Foods Section…
I think I need to visit the Indian Food Store …
That statistic of 4% (vs about 25%+ for regular drugs) getting serious disease was astounding. That stuff beats all the usual medicines in effectiveness.
So tomorrow it’s off to the Indian Store and see what I can find in the way of little black seeds…
If you do a search on “antiviral” and “food” or “plant” alot of stuff shows up. Even Turmeric (so eat lots of mustard ;-)
Regular cumin does have some medicinal properties, but not even close to the antiviral effects of “black cumin seeds” per the reports / studies.
(I was all set to go make a big pot of chili with way too much cumin in it when I realized that “black cumin” was being described with a different Latin name, and figured I ought to “make a note” of it… )
Frankly, just the foods in India (with lots of turmeric and black cumin seeds in it) and the lots of sunshine all the time (so high vit-D levels) would explain why India isn’t dying in droves and folks in Europe are having a harder go of it.
Besides, I love collecting new things I can put in my seed vault / prepper box ;-)
V.P. Elect Smith replied on 27 November 2020 at 5:36 am GMT:
I just can’t understand At All why anyone would not know how to cook. It’s easy, fun, and you get to eat whatever you like whenever you want it.
I figured out that “whatever you like” benefit sometime in my teens, when my paternal grandmother decided that I could be trusted to fry chicken without starting a grease/oil fire. Her practice was to cut chicken into 9 pieces, not the more commercial 8 pieces. Any back: the 9th piece, mainly a source of wonderfully crunchy fried skin, never made it to the dinner table when I had been placed in charge. Likewise some wings, whenever I was still hungry, and thought I could get away with it. I mean, you’re in charge of cooking all that aromatic food to completion for serving, yet some purported rules of ethics require you to abstain from, ummm, quality assurance?
@Compu Gator – was your Grandma a southern lady? That is how we always did it growing up. Back was a separate piece. (plus the neck, gizzard, heart and liver – I never ate the liver! Hate it to this day!). The back was prized because it had the most skin, so the most taste! Neck was also well sought after as it was the sweetest meat! But the biggest fight was over the gizzard and heart! To this day, fry me up some gizzards and hearts and I am a happy camper! When I first married my wife, she was throwing those out. When I found out why no turkey or chicken had them, I laid down the law! Give them to me!
My daughter knows my love, and being she is not partial to them (and the grands are squeamish), I get theirs from the Thanksgiving Turkey too!
But yes, the correct way to cut a chicken is in 9 pieces, not 8. I always took the back first because of the skin to meat ratio.
Hmm…
I cut up thousands of chickens for the family restaurant “professional” I guess, though I was a kid then…
2 legs
2 thighs
2 wings
2 breast pieces (cut in half short ways at the middle)
2 back pieces (I think… I remember separating it into two bits…)
Is that the “9 pieces” y’all are talking about? But with the back cut into rib parts and tail part? Modern practice is to take the “oyster” of back meat with the thigh. Our practice then was to leave it on the back piece to make that more acceptable.
Some folks hated getting the back, one guy loved it, so we’d give him all of them he wanted. (Small farm town, folks get special treatment.)
IIRC, we’d put one leg, one wing, one thigh and one beast piece in a bag. The shorter breast peace got the bigger back part that was the tail bit. With 1/2 a chicken, pretty much nobody complained about getting the back part, but many didn’t eat it.
My job was to cut them all up, coat in bread crumbs (that we also made) and bag them as individual orders. Order for Fried Chicken was just “dump it in the fryer and wait” ;-)
As you might guess, at 50 to a case and a couple of cases a week, we saved up a lot of livers, gizzards and hearts. Our Oklahoma Cook would make “innards in gravy”. Just put them all, rolled in season flour, into a big tray in the steam table. I’d asked her a couple of times “how do you cook them” and that’s what she’d tell me, then I’d stress but how do you cook them (meaning method of heating). After a few rounds I gave up. Only later on getting a slow cooker did I realize that in the steam table at 6 am they were slow cooking until lunch rush…
Gizzards so tender they cut with a fork. To this day I’ll cook up the innards, just for me. Rest of the family didn’t like the idea of eating them, and I never took the time to explain it ;-)
Also very fond of floured fried liver. The “trick” is to just barely get past pink into grey and stop cooking immediately. Overcooked liver is tough and bitter / crummy tasting. Just right is very nice… So cook it low heat (makes it easier to time) and not too long.
Oh, and one time my little daughter (about 6?) wanted some candy or cookies and we had nothing… I told her:
Well, we have some powdered cocoa, butter, and powdered sugar. Would you like some fudge? (Really fudge frosting).
Proceeded to cream the butter, mix in the sugar and cocoa, and a touch of vanilla and tinsy of salt…
From about the next day forward I was never able to assure cocoa and powdered sugar were reliably in stock ;-)
She learns very quick…
@EMS – Yep! The rib back piece was part of the back piece (no meat but plenty of skin!).