Cooking!

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fellranger
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Re: Cooking!

Post by fellranger » Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:11 pm

I'm impressed that you actually managed to make spam look extremely appetising... ;D
There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning....
And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave....
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

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Re: Cooking!

Post by D.B. » Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:25 pm

German style burgers (i.e. the way my german grandmother makes them)

All quantities very approximate, but for 3 moderate sized burgers one needs:
  • One egg.
  • One slice of bread, crusts cut off.
  • ~300g of mince (steak or steak/pork mix)
  • Some onion/garlic, maybe some chilli
Method:
Soak the bread in water. The amount it absorbs is roughly the correct amount to use.
Chop the onion/garlic/chilli quite finely.
Place the soaked bread in a bowl with the mince, onion/garlic/chilli, and crack the egg on top.
Squash the whole lot together by hand until it has a roughly even consistency.
Form into 3 burger patties. Place in fridge to set.
Cook however you wish.

I've just made them tonight and they're dead easy :). The same ingredients will work for meatballs too, just shape them differently.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:04 pm

This is a slight modification of a recipe I tried out last night, which I was basting about in chat for hours. :D It's the culmination of a couple of months of pondering on how to make Corned Beef. It's quite simple, but hearty. I've tried to avoid spices and seasoning in preference to allowing the natural flavour of the ingredients, which is unusual for me, who likes chilli powder.

For reason that shall never be explained I called it Fancy Ettings.

Serves four comfortably.

Ingredients

1 quarter Sweetheart cabbage
1 tin of corned beef (British corned beef is not the same as US corned beef, being finely shredded and mixed with a little gelatin in the can).
8oz (200g) of dried chestnuts
1 slice of bacon or an approximately bacon-sized slice of fatty pork of some description.
Mini carrots
Sprouting broccoli or asparagus.
1 Chicken stock cube
1 Vegetable stock cube (which is actually a broth but who's counting?)
3 or 4 chestnut mushrooms
Dried or fresh parsley
3 or 4 reasonable size spring onions
Flour
Red-wine vinegar

Before we start make sure you've kept the corned beef in the fridge overnight to stiffen it up. This prevents it from breaking up into a mess when you start cooking.

Soak the chestnuts for an hour in cold water, with a little less than half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda mixed in. This speeds up the softening process.

While the nuts are soaking you can begin preparing your broth. Boil up about 1 litre or 1.5 pints of water in a largeish saucepan, add the chicken and vegetable stocks and then cut up the bacon into small pieces and toss it in. Leave this simmering on a low heat. When the broth is ready, toss in the chestnuts and leave it for another 40 minutes to an hour.

Chop the cabbage into largish strips, the mushrooms into slices and the onions into little pieces and set them aside. When the chestnuts are well cooked, take them out of the broth and set them aside in a covered bowl. Now boil and reduce the broth as much as possible. At this point it's handy to have a steaming pan set as you can steam the carrots and broccoli at the same time as reducing the broth.

Now prepare the corned beef. First it needs to be chopped into largish cubes. Lightly fry the beef cubes in a frying pan, don't worry about little bits of of beef getting lost in the pan, you can eat those later. Immediately after frying, flip the cubes into a tray of flour and scoot them around so they're well covered. You may have to repeat this later as the flour soaks up the oil quite miraculously.

Set a pan of oil heating on the stove (not too much, we aren't fying chips). When the broth is reduced, lightly stir-fry the cabbage, mushrooms and onions in a wok, add a little red wine vinegar and then add the reduced broth and the chestnuts and fry a little longer. When the oil is hot, flash-fry the beef pieces so that they get a nice crisp outer shell (this may not work but it's ok).

Now set everything out in a fancy way on the plate and sprinkle the parsley over some of it.


The sauce:
Honey
A blue cheese, preferably stilton, but any strongish flavour will do
Flour
around 8 walnut kernels
Freshly chopped chives
Milk
A little cream

The roux is a fairly basic element of cookery. If you don't know how to make one, there's a good guide here. I added walnuts and the cheese, and a little honey to mine to offset the bitter walnut flavour and complement the cheese. Just a little. A tablespoon is probably enough.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by c_nordlander » Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:01 pm

I can attest to the awesomeness of this meal.

Good thing you didn't post a photo. You'd be violating your own "no porn" regulations.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:07 pm

SPLIT PEA SOUP

Made this Sunday night, and I thought it was pretty darned good.

SOFTWARE:
1 pound of split peas
1 medium white onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large rib of celery, diced
2 strips of bacon, uncooked, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried thyme
Kosher salt and black pepper

HARDWARE:
Large soup pot with tight-fitting lid
Blender
Sieve or fine mesh strainer

PROCEDURE:
1. Over medium-low heat, cook the bacon just enough to render out a good deal of the fat. Add onion, celery, carrot and a hefty pinch of kosher salt. Continue cooking over medium low heat until onion is translucent.
2. Add split peas, chicken stock, milk and herbs. Crank up the heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally
3. When split peas are soft, ladle soup into blender. Working in batches, blend soup until smooth, then strain through a sieve back into the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve (preferably with a grilled cheese sandwich).
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Sat May 12, 2012 5:54 pm

In Progress Stoo and Dumplins

A stew of limited means for the budget-conscious cook. It's not quite finished yet (and in fact is threatening to boil over) but I'm sure it'll be great.

First your dumplings.

250g self raising flour
150g butter
A scant teaspoon of salt
A little water

Rub the butter, salt and flour together until it turns to crumbs, add a little water and knead into a dough. Separate the dough into balls of unusual size and set them aside for the moment.

Stoooooooooo.

Two tins of stewed steak
One tin of chopped tomatoes
One tin of kidney beans
One tin of Marrowfat Peas (they're very tasty these peas)
Dried Chestnuts
One beef stock cube
Macadamia nuts (optional)
Worcestershire Sauce
Red wine vinegar
Mixed Herbs

First soften the chestnuts by simmering them in beef stock for half an hour. Add a little bicarbonate of soda to the stock to speed up the process otherwise you'll be here all night.

Place the other ingredients in a large pan (I didn't - mistake!) and begin heating. Be sure to clear the bottom of the pan every now and then. Add the chestnuts and about half of the beef stock to the mix and continue stirring. Leave to simmer for a while until hot throughout, then press the dumplings into the top. Keep simmering until the dumplings are also well cooked (this may take over half an hour and they become enormous, so watch out).

Serve stoo. It's really rather tasty.

I hope. :D
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Tue May 29, 2012 9:51 pm

Having tummy trouble today, so I thought I'd try Graham's ginger tea.

It tastes amazing. And it's helping to calm my stomach.

That is all.
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by c_nordlander » Wed May 30, 2012 9:13 am

Excellent!
Pretty little baby
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Left with honours
Brand new tycoon
Sitting with a harpoon


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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:06 pm

(Part 1 of 2)
SPICY TOMATO SOUP

SOFTWARE:
3 large tomatoes
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 small carrot, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. each dried thyme, basil, oregano
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

HARDWARE:
Table top or stick blender
2 quart soup pot
Knife and board fer cuttin'
Box grater

1. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise and remove the seeds and membrane. Run tomato halves through the large holes in a box grater and discard the skin.
2. Saute the aromatics with salt and pepper until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes, stock, milk and herbs. Cook at medium-high heat for five minutes.
4. Reduce heat to simmer, and let simmer for 20 minutes
5. Blend with either a table top or stick blender.
6. Strain though a sieve into serving vessel
7. Serve with buttered toast or a grilled cheese sandwich.
8. Tell Mr. Campbell to eat his heart out. :D

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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:19 pm

(Part 2 of 2)

HOMEMADE GINGER ALE

Another recipe from Alton Brown. Usually, I alter his recipes to suit my own tastes (as anyone would. Then it becomes your food). But since this involves fermentation, I decided to stick to the recipe as written.

SOFTWARE
1.5 oz. (about 3 tbsp.) fresh grated ginger
6 oz. (about 3/4 cup) sugar
7.5 cups filtered water
1/8 tsp. active dry yeast
2 tbsp. lemon juice

HARDWARE
1 clean, empty 2-liter bottle
Box grater
Sieve
2 quart pot
Funnel
Wooden spoon

EDIT: Before proceeding - SANITIZE EVERY UTENSIL YOU'RE GOING TO USE! The pot, the bottle, the spoon, the funnel - the whole lot of it. Easiest way to do this is to go to your friendly neighborhood restaurant supply store and get some food-grade sanitizer. Fill your sink with water (washing it first would be a great idea) and add the recommended amount of sanitizer. Put everything in the sink and make sure the bottle is full of the solution. Let everything sit for at least ten minutes, then remove to a clean area to air dry. Do not skip this step or you will be sorry. I know I was.

1. Combine ginger, sugar and 1/2 cup of water in the pot and put over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, cover with lid and let steep for 1 hour.
2. Pour syrup through strainer, pushing on it with the spoon to get all the liquid out. Let syrup cool to room temperature.
3. Using the funnel, pour syrup into bottle. Add yeast, lemon juice and the remaining 7 cups of water. Cap the bottle, then shake gently to combine. Sit at room temperature for 48 hours.
4. Open and check for desired amount of carbonation. Once desired amount has been reached, refrigerate at once. Use within two weeks, opening once daily to remove excess carbonation.

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"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:08 pm

That sounds absolutely lovely, I'll have to try it some time. My brother made some ginger beer once a year or so back but he used the wrong sort of yeast. It didn't come out too great.

EDIT:

Okay so, I was going to post this and then completely forgot. This is the Elderflower cordial I've been banging on about for the last week or two. It's a very simple drink to make, most of the effort is in finding one of the ingredients.

Which are, from the recipe passed down from my grandmother:

3 pints of boiled water (cooled)
2 oz of tartaric acid
20 elderflower heads
2 sliced lemons
3½ lb of sugar

With the water cooled, toss all the ingredients in a big bowl, cover and leave to steep for 24 hours. Strain and bottle. Can be enjoyed immediately with still or sparkling water. Lasts for several months, and can be preserved for over two years in the freezer (last time I checked at least). Freezing seems to strengthen the flavour slightly but this might not be desirable.

Tartaric acid is bruddy hard to find, let me tell you. They sell it for a huge price in home-brewing shops and the like but I'm trying to find other bulk sources. I think my indian cash and carry sells some but I've not had a chance to check.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:16 pm

Yeah, so I tried the homemade ginger ale, and now I'm feeling a bit sick. I didn't drink much - just a couple sips, so imagine how much worse I'd feel if I drank more.

But it was worth it to at least make an entertaining video.

In the words of an infamous pony, "I just don't know what went wrong."
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by fellranger » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:52 pm

Hmm, I'd be tempted to give it a bit longer and try it again (if you haven't poured it down the sink...). I remember my brother making a batch many moons ago and the damn stuff had a life of its own, including the explosive properties seen in your video!
There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning....
And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave....
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:15 pm

Made an important edit to the above ginger ale post.

Also posting to let you all know I'm still alive. Not a small feat, considering I did nothing but grow bacteria for two days, then drank it for the whole world to see. ;D
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by c_nordlander » Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:54 am

Whoa. Hope you're feeling better!

The ginger ale experiment was unsuccessful. The biological weaponry experiment, on the other hand...
Pretty little baby
Pretty little monster
Went to the good school
Left with honours
Brand new tycoon
Sitting with a harpoon


-- Mother Mother, "Business Man"

Now offering writing commissions! Fanfiction or original, PM me for more information.
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