Thursday, March 13, 2014

Late Winter Thursday Cooking Practice
 slow carne, greens, and mashed potatoes

Thursday's cooking practice still mostly the same: slow carne asada or carnitas into the slow cooker, but then I put on a pot for water one of my three greens. If it's turnip greens, it's blanched in the large saucepan and drained in a few minutes, if it's kale, it's blanched in the large saucepan and then sauteed in the large saute pan for maybe thirty minutes, and if it's collards, it's simmered in the large saucepan for an hour. When the greens are done, instead of baked sweet potatoes I've been doing mashed potatoes and beans in whatever pans I've already dirtied.

four russet potatoes
two cans of white, pink, or red beans—whatever beans you want, it's America

Generously salt water and bring to a boil in a large saucepan.

Scrub and quarter potatoes. Boil until fork tender, about fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile rinse and drain the beans. If it's around, I put them in the large saute pan. Let's just say put them in the large saute pan.

When the potatoes are done, ladle out a pint of cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup and then drain the potatoes.

Mash the beans with a potato masher in the saute pan, adding in some cooking liquid to make them easier to mash. Add the potatoes back to the pan and mash them on top of the beans, adding more cooking liquid to make the consistency you want. I like fairly soft mashed potatoes and add back almost the whole pint of liquid.

Put the mashed potatoes into a container for your week's spacefood needs.

So a "normal" Thursday cooking practice might go, in order:

  1. Prep slow carne
  2. Prep greens and put them in a container
  3. Prep mashed potatoes and beans and put them in a container
  4. Go do something else, like nap.
  5. Start cooker around 4pm
  6. Go to train or practice
  7. Put slow carne into a container

To plate it up, you grab your containers and fix yourself a bowl of slow carne, greens, and mashed potatoes and heat the bowl in the microwave, and then you add a lil chunk of butter on top of your mashed potatoes:

slow pork, kale, and mashed potatoes

I have to say, I've been freestyling my slow carne and some of them have been great and some of them have been gross, and the above is actually one of the gross ones. But hey, freestyling, fun, just sometimes it turns out gross but mama, that's where the fun is.