Food and How you Cook/Eat it (2014)

[1995hoo]

Dumbass question. I've got an electric range oven with a self cleaning cycle.  I've never used the oven in 3 years in my unit.  Prior owner left some carbony-like stuff on the bottom of the oven that I did not have time to have then clean before I bought.  I suppose what I should do is first try some soap and water cleaning first, but is there anything I should watch for on the self-cleaning cycle?  I assume the self-cleaning shuts off after a time, right?

The oven is in working order.  my home inspector checked it.  I'm just thinking I may want to use the thing.

If you run the self-clean, take everything out of the drawer under the oven and don't leave anything on the stove. That cycle gets very hot.

If you own a pet bird, you may not want to use the self-clean at all—it is dangerous to some birds. The smell is unpleasant anyway. I ran ours last month and I couldn't open the windows (too cold, plus we have insulating film on the kitchen windows), but I didn't have much choice other than using oven cleaner spray. The house smelled foul that day.

[imref]

HELP

My boss "volunteered" me to represent our department in a chili cook-off. I've only made chili once, and it was a really good but eccentric recipe. Do any of y'all have a kick-ass chili recipe I can deploy?  The cook-off is Tuesday...

my favorite chili's have been when I've used a variety of dried peppers that you'll find in any good supermarket's latin food section.

My go-to-recipe:
1-2lbs of browned chorizo (remove from the skin and brown it like ground beef)
2 cans of red beans
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 cup of chopped celery
1 tbsp of cumin (toasted seeds that you then ground work best)
3-4 various chili peppers rehydrated and chopped fine
1-2 chipotle peppers or Habaneras' depending on your taste (i prefer the habaneras, take out the seeds to reduce the heat but wear gloves when chopping)
half a lime juice
tbsp of honey
salt/pepper

from there, play with it until you get it to a flavor you like.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Is it OK to use oven spray in a self clean?

[Frau Mau]

Unless there is something gunky in the oven why bother cleaning it? Just sweep the carbon out and go to town. That was probably what was left from the previous owner doing a self-cleaning anyway.

[imref]

Is it OK to use oven spray in a self clean?

you mean on the walls?  I use non-stick spray on pans that i'm cooking something in.  But I'd be careful about going above 375 with any cooking spray due to smoke points.

[1995hoo]

Is it OK to use oven spray in a self clean?

As far as I know it's fine, as long as you clean it out thoroughly afterwards.

[lastobjective]

Is it OK to use oven spray in a self clean?

The fume-free kind, yes. Easy-Off Fume Free I think. It's really useful for cleaning the wells of your heating elements as well, at least for my stove

Just read the instructions, I don't think it's supposed to be used with the self-cleaning option.

[1995hoo]

The fume-free kind, yes. Easy-Off Fume Free I think. It's really useful for cleaning the wells of your heating elements as well, at least for my stove

Just read the instructions, I don't think it's supposed to be used with the self-cleaning option.

Absolutely correct, you should never spray the stuff and then activate the self-clean. It's something you use in lieu of the self-clean.

[imref]

Sorry. Really thought you meant Pam.   No, just use the self clean.

[tomterp]

my favorite chili's have been when I've used a variety of dried peppers that you'll find in any good supermarket's latin food section.

My go-to-recipe:
1-2lbs of browned chorizo (remove from the skin and brown it like ground beef)
2 cans of red beans
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 cup of chopped celery
1 tbsp of cumin (toasted seeds that you then ground work best)
3-4 various chili peppers rehydrated and chopped fine
1-2 chipotle peppers or Habaneras' depending on your taste (i prefer the habaneras, take out the seeds to reduce the heat but wear gloves when chopping)
half a lime juice
tbsp of honey
salt/pepper

from there, play with it until you get it to a flavor you like.

I love using a wide array of peppers, getting a diversity of heats & flavors. 

[houston-nat]

Thanks for the chili help, folks! I have a few Hatch chile peppers thawing out - froze 'em when the crop was picked in August. They will definitely be joining the party.

[tomterp]

Thanks for the chili help, folks! I have a few Hatch chile peppers thawing out - froze 'em when the crop was picked in August. They will definitely be joining the party.

You can roast or smoke them for that competitive edge.   

[tomterp]

Anybody got any good rabbit recipes?  I've been traveling to Seattle lately and many restaurants feature it on the menu.  Tried it once, very tender and good.  They sell them at the Amish market in Germantown.

[blue911]

Anybody got any good rabbit recipes?  I've been traveling to Seattle lately and many restaurants feature it on the menu.  Tried it once, very tender and good.  They sell them at the Amish market in Germantown.

Cacciatore

[tomterp]

Cacciatore

Most of what I'm finding are slow cook recipes.  I love them, my wife has yet to warm up to them.

Did pork recently in the crock pot, came out really good in my opinion but I was alone in that assessment. 

[blue911]

Most of what I'm finding are slow cook recipes.  I love them, my wife has yet to warm up to them.

Did pork recently in the crock pot, came out really good in my opinion but I was alone in that assessment. 

You can always fire up the grill!

[imref]

I love using a wide array of peppers, getting a diversity of heats & flavors. 

Forgot to add: toast the peppers in a skillet before rehydrating. Adds flavor.

[tomterp]

Forgot to add: toast the peppers in a skillet before rehydrating. Adds flavor.

If you use fresh peppers no hydration necessary.   

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Anybody got any good rabbit recipes?  I've been traveling to Seattle lately and many restaurants feature it on the menu.  Tried it once, very tender and good.  They sell them at the Amish market in Germantown.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sopranos-Family-Cookbook-Compiled/dp/0446530573

Artie might have a rabbit recipe in there.

[Mathguy]

Lemon Shrimp

Melt a stick of ‪‎butter‬ in the pan.
Slice one ‪lemon‬ and layer it on top of the butter.
Put down a fresh pound of ‎shrimp‬,
Then sprinkle one pack of dried ‪‎Italian‬ seasoning.
Put in the oven and bake at 350 for 15 min.
Best Shrimp you will EVER taste

Sprinkle red chili flakes or Old Bay for a spicy twist to it!

[saltydad]

Lemon Shrimp

Melt a stick of ‪‎butter‬ in the pan.
Slice one ‪lemon‬ and layer it on top of the butter.
Put down a fresh pound of ‎shrimp‬,
Then sprinkle one pack of dried ‪‎Italian‬ seasoning.
Put in the oven and bake at 350 for 15 min.
Best Shrimp you will EVER taste

Sprinkle red chili flakes or Old Bay for a spicy twist to it!

Shelled shrimp?

[Mathguy]

Yes Salty - take shells off first

Shelled shrimp?

[saltydad]

Thanks. Thought so.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

food question that Ali may know the answer to - In what part of the world did chilis originate?  I thought they were from the new world (americas), but in the beer thread and elsewhere, there is a lot of talk about Thai chilis, and of course chilis are huge in asian cuisine.  Were they exported to Asia, kind of like the tomato was exported from the Americas to europe and became a feature of Italian cuisine?

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I'm pretty sure chilis are indigenous to the Americas and only made it to Africa and Asia via the Portuguese in the 1500s...hard to imagine Asian food without capsaicin, but I think black peppercorns were the only ingredient they had that supplied "heat" (loosely defined).  Vindaloo originated in Goa (Portuguese colony on the west coast of India for like 500+ years, only reverting to Indian control in the 1960s), and as I understand it was traditionally made with pork or beef (unthinkable in the rest of India).