Yet another note to underline that WordPress on www.malak.ca has been updated, this time to version 6.9.4. And, when I was checking, I deleted 3,344 pending comments — I have long since stopped inspecting them 100 at a time for the possibility of a legitimate post; though I did notice that this time around, about 1,400 (presumably) spammy comments were lined up for my post on making Sour Cream Muffins! 🙂
New recipes:
Savoury Pork Custard: A recipe developed with — actually initially proposed by — ChatGPT to create a pork based dish that is very soft.
A Tiramisu-inspired Layer Cake: A recipe based off a “quick tiramisu” seen on a “30 minute meals” show, and reworked again with the help of ChatGPT. Tasty! (Optionally) Uses the loaf cake version of my Plain Cake. At this moment, the recipe is still an early draught along the lines of a “Release early, release often” model (here’s my archive).
Pulled Beef: Basically, beef cooked in the kitchen braising or stewed beef method. The first time I made it, it was a spot on recreation of what one would expect! (Adapted from my pulled pork recipe for beef, with … the help of ChatGPT.)
Updated recipes:
Pulled Pork: A recent addition, but listed as “updated” because I had already transferred this recipe to malak.ca/food several weeks ago. Pulled pork cooked in the kitchen braising method. This has become a recent favourite! The second time I brought it to a church dinner, it was sufficiently popular for it to be characterized as “Don’s Famous Pulled Pork” — much to my amusement, given that in those circles it is more my vegetable soup that would be characterized as “famous” when associated with me, while another parishioner’s pulled pork would best characterized as the “famous pulled pork” in those circles. 🙂
Vegetable Soup: Updated a couple of months ago; I don’t recall the latest updates.
Making the vegetable soup instead of another recipe from my recipe collection that I had planned was a bit of a last minute decision, given that the decision to go to the cottage this past weekend was made at the last minute. As such, being at the cottage, I was cooking in a different kitchen using different equipment from usual while making the soup (see pictures).
My 16 quart pot was placed on the stove:
Large pot on stove
A can each of crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes were taken out:
28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes
The crushed tomatoes were poured into the pot:
Crushed tomatoes poured into a pot
The can with crushed tomatoes was rinsed with water, which was poured into the pot:
Rinsing crushed tomatoes can with water, and poured into the pot
The diced tomatoes were then poured into the pot:
Diced tomatoes poured into pot
A can of kidney beans was taken out …
19 oz can of kidney beans
… poured into the pot …
Kidney beans poured into the pot
… and the kidney beans can was rinsed with water, which was then poured into the pot as well:
Kidney bean can rinsed with water and poured into the pot
A 32 ounce (900 mL) box of vegetable broth was taken out …
A roughly 32 ounce (900 mL) box of vegetable broth
… and was poured into the pot:
Vegetable broth poured into the pot
About a kilogram (a bit over two pounds) of mixed frozen vegetables were taken out …
About 1kg of mixed frozen vegetables
… and poured into the pot:
Mixed vegetables poured into the pot
At this point, I started mixing the ingredients:
Ingredients in pot mixed
A 32 ounce (945mL) bottle of multi-vegetable cocktail was taken out …
32 oz (945mL) bottle of vegetable cocktail
… and poured into the pot:
32 oz (945mL) bottle of vegetable cocktail poured into the pot
At this point, the burner on the stove was turned on to start heating up the soup:
Stove under pot turned on
Throughout the following steps, I kept on mixing the soup in the pot to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pot.
Next, a couple of onions were taken out …
Two onions
… then the onions were cleaned and trimmed …
Onions cleaned and trimmed
… then the onions were sliced …
Sliced onions
… then the onions were chopped …
Chopped onions
… and the chopped onions were placed in a mixing bowl:
Chopped onions placed in mixing bow
A potato was taken out …
A potato
… and the potato was cleaned and trimmed:
Potato cleaned and trimmed
The potato was sliced along its length …
Potato sliced along its length
… the potato was then sliced into spears …
Potato sliced into spears
… then the potato was sliced into cubes …
Potatoes sliced into cubes
… and the potato cubes were placed into the mixing bowl with the chopped onions:
Potato cubes placed in mixing bowl with chopped onions
Two carrots were taken out …
Two carrots
… the carrots were cleaned and trimmed …
Carrots cleaned and trimmed
… then the carrots were quartered to make spears …
Carrots sliced into spears
… then the carrots were then chopped coarsely …
Carrots chopped coarsely
… and the chopped carrots were placed in the bowl with the potato cubes and chopped onions:
Chopped carrots placed in mixing bowl with potatoes and onions
Throughout all the vegetable chopping, I mixed the ingredients already in the pot while it was heating up, in order to avoid burning on the bottom of the pot.
Next, olive oil was added to the bowl of chopped vegetables …
Olive oil added to the chopped vegetables
… then the chopped vegetables and olive oil were mixed together to fully coat the chopped vegetables:
Mixed vegetables and olive oil mixed together
A cast iron skillet was preheated on the stove:
Cast iron skillet preheated on the stove
… and the mixed chopped vegetables and olive oil were transferred to the skillet:
Transferring mixed chopped vegetables and olive oil to the cast iron skillet
Mixed chopped vegetables and olive oil in the cast iron skillet
Salt was added to the frying chopped vegetables:
Salt added to the frying chopped vegetables
Once the chopped vegetables started to brown in the skillet, they were transferred to the soup pot that was continuing to be heated up:
Fried vegetables transferred to the soup pot
The skillet was deglazed with water …
Deglazing hot skillet
… and the deglazing liquid was added to the soup pot:
Deglazing liquid added to the soup pot
Half a cup of rice was measured out:
Half a cup of rice measured out
… and the rice was added to the soup.
Rice added to the soup
Water was added to the soup pot to bring the liquid level up to the eight quart mark:
Water added to soup pot to bring it to eight quart mark
The soup was continued to be heated:
Soup heating up
… and brought to a boil:
Boiling soup
The heat was reduced and the soup was simmered for over half an hour:
Simmering soup
I continued adjusting the salt level in the soup until it was to my taste.
While the soup was simmering, plastic containers (in this case, reused yoghurt containers) were laid out:
Plastic containers laid out
Once the soup had simmered for over half an hour (probably coming on to an hour), the soup was taken off the stove, and transferred to the containers with a ladle (the golden sheen is the olive oil reflecting the camera flash):
Soup transferred to plastic containers
And the containers were covered, and placed in the freezer:
