Did you try a new food or dish? Tell us about it!

Bubastes

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The thread title says it all. Share your food discoveries, even if you think it's something everyone else has had. Did you make a dish you've never attempted before? Bought a new condiment at the supermarket on impulse? If it's new to you, tell us about it and how you liked it.

My recent food find: Philippine coconut spread (the jar says "matamisna bao"). I picked it up at a Southeast Asian food market. The spread is like coconut dulce de leche and is fabulous on toast. I imagine it would be quite tasty on a shortbread cookie as well.
 

PorterStarrByrd

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Hey .. Chicken Ten Eyck
Stuff boneless chicken breast and boneless leg and thigh sections (Cook with the skins on to keep moist, let the diners put it aside if they need to) with a wild rice (with white rice) and crab. Season stuffing with thyme, sage, garlic, S&P
Pour a little Sautern into the chicken broth in the bottom of the backing dish and bake the chicken, covered, for about 40 minutes at 275. Take the top off and turn the oven up to about 425 and bake until it is browned. The outside of the dressing will probably be crispy which is desirable.
Thickly slice some fresh mushrooms (type is your choice. I'd use pre-fried morrels if I had the chance, usually use reglr old store bought))
Get rid of the remaining liquid you baked the chicken in and replace it with a cheddar sauce (White sauce with plenty of medium cheddar and a dash or two of Sherry.Salt to taste.) poured over the chicken and the mushrooms
Liberally sprinkle with freach parmesan and broil til top is brown.

Can't tell you what to do with the left-overs, never had any.
 
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francist44

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This is not quite spot-on with this thread, but I’m going to throw this recipe of mine out there whereas, I’m sure it will be received as a new dish.
Stuffed calamari rings
Cut a large squid into thick rings -1”-
Make stuffing with: seasoned breadcrumbs, egg whites, celery, a little garlic, crab meat and diced calamari
Put the rings on a baking pan with the stuffing in the center and bake at 350 until they turn brown a little. Place spicy -hot- monetary jack cheese on top, melt and serve.

Oh yeah, don’t tell anyone what they’re eating until they come back seconds or thirds.
 

chevbrock

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Dunno if this is what you're after. Today I am experimenting with a "savoury" apple sauce to go with the roast pork in the oven. Nothing fancy - apple, dash of malt vinegar, and mixed herbs. Seems okay so far, about halfway through cooking.
 

CatSlave

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My recent food find: Philippine coconut spread (the jar says "matamisna bao"). I picked it up at a Southeast Asian food market. The spread is like coconut dulce de leche and is fabulous on toast.
When I was a kid growing up in Florida, all the roadside citrus/souvenir shops sold a sweet coconut spread in a jar, alongside the marmalade, plastic alligators and bags of grapefruits.

I don't know if anyone still makes it, but it sounds like your Philippine find. Yummy stuff.
 

PorterStarrByrd

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Something about all of the cat avatars makes me want to dig up the old roof-rabbit cook book :)>
 

icerose

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I don't get to eat out very often and with my celiacs it means when I do my choices are extremely limited. During this last month we had a ton of doctor visits so we had no choice to eat out. We were at Wendy's when I saw the apple pecan chicken salad. It sounded good so I ordered it as Wendy's typically has some pretty good salads.

It had sweet apples sliced up over a variety of fresh greens, some honey roasted pecans, grilled chicken, and the best dressing I have ever had on a sweet salad. Pomegranate Vinaigrette. That dressing is amazing. I have started to make it at home and I absolutely love it. It's the right balance for a vinaigrette with just enough sweet and salty to handle the vinegar with ease.
 

shawkins

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The other day I was on vacation and I ate at a restaurant called Cut. Wolfgang Puck is supposedly involved somehow--his name was on the sign, at any rate. The meal was spectacular overall, but the thing that qualifies it for this thread was the starter: maple glazed pork belly confit with asian spices and some sort of pear sauce. This was the single best thing I have ever eaten. No exaggeration. I expect to remember those two bites on my deathbed.

I also made Chicken Wings, Momofuko Style from Steamy Kitchen:
http://steamykitchen.com/6902-momofuku-baked-chicken-wings.html

...to die for!

Ah cool. I've got the momofuku cookbook, but I haven't made this one yet.
 

firedrake

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We're on a tight budget at the moment so I've been making things that I'd normally buy.

Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls for the first time. They turned out just fine and the kitchen still smells of cinnamon.

There are a lot of recipes out there, but Paula Deen's worked the best for me.

cinnamonrolls001.jpg
 

Lavern08

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...It had sweet apples sliced up over a variety of fresh greens, some honey roasted pecans, grilled chicken, and the best dressing I have ever had on a sweet salad. Pomegranate Vinaigrette. That dressing is amazing. I have started to make it at home and I absolutely love it. It's the right balance for a vinaigrette with just enough sweet and salty to handle the vinegar with ease.


Ahhhh,

The power of suggestion - I just tried that ^ salad for lunch and it was crazy good - It also contained dried cranberries.

I'm gonna start making that one for my lunch instead of buying it at Wendy's - It was a bit pricey (IMHO) at $5.99.

Thanks for the tip, Icerose :Hug2:
 

icerose

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Yes, I forgot about the dried cranberries. An all around yummy salad. And I agree, though it's $8.99 around here due to the fresh veggie shortage.
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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I have tons of Weight Watchers cookbooks from my tenure there (In a few weeks I'll be able to go back since I'll have a job and some MONEY again!)

I love them because in trying to help you lose weight, they also introduce you to foods (especially produce) you might not normally try.

I was raised with a 50s mom who made everything from mixes, and I've managed to become a foodie in spite of it, so I've been trying to experiment a little. If Mr. HH will eat it, I'll file the recipe for future use. (I'm lucky in that the only things he REALLY doesn't like are sushi and beets!)

One of our new favorites is a Kale and Potato Chowder, which is wonderful in the wintertime. It has turkey kielbasa in it, which adds a really nice smokiness. And MAN it's easy to make. Perfect when it's -30 outside. And for those of us watching our girlish (and boyish) figures, a competely manageable number of points.

So yeah....kale. Who'd a thunk it?
 

Lavern08

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... One of our new favorites is a Kale and Potato Chowder, which is wonderful in the wintertime. It has turkey kielbasa in it, which adds a really nice smokiness. And MAN it's easy to make.

Post the recipe, please? ;)
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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For Lavern and Bubastes, and anyone else interested:

Portugese Kale-and-Potato Chowder (from "In Season"
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBMFUW/?tag=absowrit-20)

1 cup sliced turkey kielbasa (about 6 oz)
2 T. olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 cups 1% lowfat milk
2 lbs peeled cubed baking potato
3/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
5 cups thinly slice fresh kale or turnip greens (about 3/4 lb)

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot. Add kielbasa, saute' 10 minutes or until browned. Remove kielbasa from pan.

2. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat until hot. Ad onion and garlic, saute' 5 minutes. Add milk, potato, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until potato is very tender.

3. Remove from heat and beat potato mixture at medium speed of a mixer until smooth (I use a food processor. Easier and quicker- HH).

4. Stir in kielbasa and kale, and cook 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Yield 8 servings (serving size 1 1/2 cups).

Awesome with crusty bread and a little red wine. :D

Enjoy, y'all!
Hip
 

Perks

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I had borscht today for the first time. It was a bit sweet for my taste. Is it supposed to be sweet-ish? (Not to be confused with Swedish. It Russian, I know.)
 
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Just had the most fantastic mirror carp off my grill. Bought it at the fresh market downtown Haifa, where it was alive on the counter and clubbed to death in the shopping bag. But it did not croak in vain. It was the best fish I've ever eaten. My cats and I shall finish it tomorrow.
 

Kitty Pryde

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I ate my first sticky toffee pudding in England last week. Ohhhh, where has it been all my life? A relatively bland spongy cake with wondrous toffee sauce all over it, and tasty custard all over that. Mmmmmm.

Other firsts that I liked much less on this trip: sausage roll, pork pie, and trifle.
 

DragonHeart

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Not only did I bake cookies completely by myself for the first time today, I also tried a new recipe. I know, I probably should have gone with something I know but I wanted to test this cause if it comes out ok I'll make them for Thanksgiving.

I made maple butter cookies, which are basically butter cookies made with maple syrup, brown sugar and cornmeal. I probably should have left them in longer than I did but they didn't come out terrible. Not sure what they're supposed to taste like lol, but it's pretty nice as is. Not overly sweet like I thought, the cornmeal's a little strong though. They do seem a bit dry though; I wonder if I should have left the milk in even though the recipe said to omit it for this particular variation.
 

kikazaru

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Not only did I bake cookies completely by myself for the first time today, I also tried a new recipe. I know, I probably should have gone with something I know but I wanted to test this cause if it comes out ok I'll make them for Thanksgiving.

I made maple butter cookies, which are basically butter cookies made with maple syrup, brown sugar and cornmeal. I probably should have left them in longer than I did but they didn't come out terrible. Not sure what they're supposed to taste like lol, but it's pretty nice as is. Not overly sweet like I thought, the cornmeal's a little strong though. They do seem a bit dry though; I wonder if I should have left the milk in even though the recipe said to omit it for this particular variation.

I didn't see this thread until this morning. Dragon, I make a maple pecan shortbread recipe for Xmas and the cookies need a day to develop their optimum flavour so perhaps yours do as well. As for being dry, you can soften them by placing them in a container with a slice of apple for a day or so.
 

roseangel

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I tend to be very adventurous with food, but the most recent completely new thing I tried recently was homemade dango.
Rice flour dumplings, I made them plain as it was my first batch, then coated it in homemade dark chocolate sauce and homemade whip cream, leftover from a chocolate-nut-fig torte I had made the day before.
The texture was kind of chewy-gooey like, really hard to describe.
I liked it, I think I'll try more variety, too.
 

sunandshadow

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I had beets for the first time last week. I wasn't terribly enthused that they turned all my bodily fluids red, but they tasted good. I was thinking they would be particularly good if I could figure out a way to combine them with cranberries or cranberry juice to make some sort of gelatine thing.
 

sunandshadow

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Made my own sour cream from heavy cream and vinegar today. Tasted way better than the thick bitter stuff the grocery store has. Only minor issue was that it seemed inclined to separate when put on a hot food, same as whipped cream does. I was trying to get a sour cream like what the local mexican restaurants use - this tasted like that but theirs doesn't separate when hot.