My First Cook Up of 2014

What is a cook up? 

According to Urban Dictionary (the definitive word on all things), a cook up has several meanings. Some of my faves are:

1. street term for crack
2. what prisoners create out of various food items from the commissary list at their particular jail or prison

My definition is more simple.  It's the process of cooking a lot of food at once, saving time during the week.

This morning, I got up and began cooking at 5:53 a.m.  My plan was to complete 5 main dishes/protein sources.  I finished at 11:21 a.m.  So, I prepped and cooked for almost five and a half hours straight, but it was so worth it.  I got most of these recipes from the amazingly wonderful cookbook called, "Well Fed."  I can't tell you how delicious these recipes are.

Here we go!

The first thing I made was the Blue Ribbon Captain Country Chicken.  Here's a pic of the ingredients:

Here's my favorite cutting mat from a collection.  It prevents cross-contamination.  I got it from The Container Store.

Here's a pic of all of the ingredients put together and ready to go into the oven. 

While waiting for the other ingredients to cook in the oven, I toasted the almonds.  These things are addictive!

Here's a pic of the finished product.  I love all the different colors.  It just makes it seem healthy.

The second thing I made was the Shepherd's Pie.  Here's a pic of the ingredients:

First, I made the cauliflower topping.  I started by boiling the cauliflower florets until they're soft, but not too soft.  Then, I put them in my Ninja and pureed them as much as possible.  Then I put them back in a pot with some almond milk, salt and pepper and made them even softer.

While the cauliflower was cooking, I chopped up the carrots and onions and sauteed them.

There was a little left over so, in the interest of not being wasteful, I put it in a container for use later in spinach or eggs or something.

Next, I cooked the meat along with the carrots and onions, broth, .

At first, it was very juicy.

 Here's the finished product:

The next thing I made was the Salmon a L’Afrique du Nord.  Here's a pic of the ingredients:

Here's the marinade:

This is what it looks like once I rub the marinade on:

 Here's a pic of the finished product.  The skin is nice and crispy.  Mmm...

The next thing I made was a roasted/baked broccoli and shrimp dish.  Here's a pic of the ingredients:

 

 

The last thing I cooked wasn't from a recipe.  It was just throwing together a few things.  When we were in Costa Rica on our honeymoon, I caught a trout.  The way they cooked it was so lovely that I wanted to recreate it.  Well, we didn't have trout at our house.  We had tilapia.  So I cooked that instead.

Here are the ingredients:

I started with some ghee in the pan.  Ghee is clarified butter.  It has a higher burn point than butter, which allows for high temperature cooking without any smoke being produced.  I then used one part minced garlic, one part salt and one part pepper.  I made a sort of rub and put it on the tilapia.  Note to newbies: ghee has a bit of salt in it on its own, so be sparing with adding too much salt to your marinade/rub.

Anywho, here's the finished product.  It probably  doesn't look as good as it tastes.  I'm not a professional chef and I don't use special lighting to make it look good.

This made approximately 24 servings of food.  So, enough for lunch and dinner for Kelsey and me for the entire week (with a little for Taylor when she wants some).