Cooking!

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missy_misery
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Re: Cooking!

Post by missy_misery » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:27 am

I love that you dream in food, Graham! Win, I have to try it soon!
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:22 pm

Sometimes, the right accompaniment can make a mediocre dish good and a good dish great. This is something we make at Universal, and we put it on a tuna salad sandwich. But you can put it on darned near anything.

Pickled Onions

Software:
2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg) whole red onions (or pre-sliced rings)
1/2 gallon (1.89 liters) rice wine vinegar
1/2 lbs. (226.8 grams) white granulated sugar

Hardware:
1 medium saucepan
Whisk
Large-ish Knife
Cutting board
1 casserole dish big enough to fit the onions and liquid
1 collander or sieve for draining.

Procedure:
Slice the onions into rings about 1/4 in. thick (or, if you doubt your knife skills, buy them pre-sliced). Put the vinegar and sugar in the saucepan over high heat and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Do not let it boil. Place the onions in the casserole dish and pour the liquid on top, making sure to completely cover the onions. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour, then cover and move to the fridge and let them sit overnight. The next day, drain the liquid and store the onions. Use them within two weeks.
"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 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:03 pm

Awesome! Sounds very doable.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by SirMustapha » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:59 pm

A simple dish I do at home typically involves rice, black beans and
some meat with assorted greens and vegetables. Sometimes, to simplify
things, I unify the rice, meat and assorted greens and vegetables into
a simple, nice risotto. Here's one that's hard to fail:

One medium to large onion;
Three cloves of garlic;
A nice slice of red pepper;
About 1 kilogram (2 pounds) of chicken, without bones or skin;
A bunch of spinach (we commonly use collard greens as well);
Tomato sauce;
Two and a half (or three) cups of rice;
Whatever seasoning you may like (Basil and oregano do just right for us).

Chop the onion to small pieces, the garlic to tiny bits (you can press
it if you have the means) and the pepper to average pieces. The
quantities may vary to your taste. Chop the spinach and cut the
chicken to reasonable chunks.
Coat the bottom of a casserole dish with cooking oil and let it heat. Fry the onion, the garlic and the pepper -- it is recommended to add the ingredients one at a time and letting them fry for about a minute, but since I have little space to organize everything, I dump them all at once and it works fine. Stir the ingredients as they fry, and let the juice drain out of it and boil away. The onions will get nicely browned, and this is when you put the chicken in. Keep stirring and let the ckicken fry for a good while, taking care not to let the onions stick to the bottom and burn. Next, add the spinach and mix it with the chicken, letting the fluid drain out and boil for a while.
The next step is to add a good quantity of tomato sauce and a little water, mixing it well. Once it starts boiling, add the rice and reduce the fire. Keep an eye on the rice, adding water as necessary, until the rice is fully cooked.
After turning off the fire, I add basil and oregano and mix. It's important to mix the basil AFTER the fire is out, because the flavour doesn't resist well to cooking.

I usually avoid adding salt to these recipes. Using just the ingredients listed, the flavour becomes smooth and tender. I also don't list exact measures because I usually use my intuition. Those quantities make a really nice quantity, and for Isis and I it lasts for abour three days or more, for lunch and dinner. Reduce the quantities as you wish, for making a smaller, quicker meal.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by D.B. » Sat Apr 30, 2011 7:19 pm

Student pizzas:

Ingredients:
  • Bread base - I've been using shop bought pizza bases. The Co-op does 2 for £1.50, which is cheap enough.
  • Tomatoes - a can of chopped tomatoes costs about 30p and will easily do two pizzas.
  • Cheese - not complicated. Grated, you don't need much to roughly cover the whole thing. Maybe 20p spent here
  • Garlic, herbs and black pepper - very important. so cheap it's almost free.
  • Some toppings - a single large-ish mushroom will more than cover a pizza, and costs about 10p. Experimented with some pilchard today, which was 45p for a can of 4, of which i oly used one.
Directions:
Pretty obvious -tomato goes on bread, cheese on tomato, everything else on top. Cook for ~20 mins in a hot oven. garlic and herbs are important - I tried one without them last night and it just didn't work right. Whole thing took maybe 30 mins to make.

Okay, so why am I pointing out such an obvious recipe here? Because it costs less than a frozen pizza. A pizza made as above costs about £1.30, which is about the same as a co-op plain cheese frozen pizza - except this tastes of ingredient, rather than preservatives and flavourings. Seriously, I've been buying these crappy frozen things using the logic that they have economies of scale working for them, so of course they'll undercut making your own one using ingredients found in the very same shop. Gaah!

Suffice to say I've no intention of going back :)

EDIT: Okay, after some more investigating...

A plain cheese value pizza costs 83p. I was getting it mixed up with the cheapest pizza with toppings (which actually costs noticeably more than £1.30). Hence, probably the cheapest option overall is to buy this + add stuff on top. However am not convinced I'm going to do this, as actual saving is small and the "homemade" version above is nicer.

Have also experimented this evening with buying instant tomato pasta sauce, and using that instead of chopped tomatoes. Results weren't bad. It tastes more like a regular shop-bought pizza - the differenc eis similar to the difference between tomatoes and tomato sauce (so sweeter but a like faker). I suppose if I were cooking for others and wasn't sure what they liked, i'd go for the sauce version. For myself, probably the chopped tomatoes.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:52 am

Dinner this evening was Teriyaki salmon, miniature new potatoes, tenderstem brocolli and grilled spring onions. Marvellous.

Image

I'm pretty proud of this one. :D
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Re: Cooking!

Post by c_nordlander » Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:37 pm

You should be! Because it was gorgeous.
Pretty little baby
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Brand new tycoon
Sitting with a harpoon


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Re: Cooking!

Post by fellranger » Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:13 pm

That does look tasty! And top marks for presentation. :)
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Re: Cooking!

Post by D.B. » Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:44 pm

Onion Bhajis:

Ingredients:
Chopped onion (1/2 an onion is ~ one bhaji)
Flour
Chilli
Some spices and whatnot
Beer


Method:
  • Fry the onion until it's just browning.
  • In a bowl mix the flour, chilli, and other spices.
  • Add the onions to the mix.
  • Slowly add beer, mixing by hand. You want it so you can make 'snowballs' of the mixture that will hold together
  • Heat some oil to as high a temperature as possible in a pan, then add a snowball of mixture. Flatten it down. Once one side is cooked, flip it over.
  • Repeat this until you've run out of mixture. Put them all to one side, and just before serving the rest of the meal put them in the over to heat up
Conclusion:
OMG, this makes a student curry taste like a proper curry! I wasn't that careful at all about the mixture or intermediate steps, and it was still done in maybe 5 mins. Will be making these from now on with, well, just about everything :)
"The way to succeed is to get born at the right time and in the right place. If you can do that then you are bound to succeed. You have to be receptive and have some talent as well."
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Re: Cooking!

Post by AssistantCrone » Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:47 pm

You, sir, are a pioneer. *procures onions*
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Wed Aug 17, 2011 6:55 pm

Home-made chicken curry sandwich.

Take two slices of bread. Add salad and chicken curry. Consume with gusto.

Delicious.
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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:41 pm

Fish and chips I made yesterday for lunch.

Image

Recipe follows:

For the batter:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash Old Bay Seasoning
1 bottle brown beer, cold
1 1/2 pounds firm-fleshed whitefish (tilapia, pollock, cod), cut into 1-ounce strips
Cornstarch, for dredging

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and Old Bay seasoning. Whisk in the beer until the batter is completely smooth and free of any lumps. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Note: The batter can be made up to 1 hour ahead of time.

Lightly dredge fish strips in cornstarch. Working in small batches, dip the fish into batter and immerse into hot oil. When the batter is set, turn the pieces of fish over and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Drain the fish on the roasting rack. Serve with malt vinegar.

Also, cook some fries (or "chips," as y'all say).
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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Re: Cooking!

Post by archonix » Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:15 pm

If it's not deep-fried it's not real fish!

Looks delicious. :D
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Re: Cooking!

Post by c_nordlander » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:24 pm

Those look authentic and delicious, Terry!
Pretty little baby
Pretty little monster
Went to the good school
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Brand new tycoon
Sitting with a harpoon


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Re: Cooking!

Post by Terry Y » Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:01 pm

Thanks, guys!

Actually, I should mention that I made the following modifications:

We didn't have any Old Bay seasoning, so I added a bit more salt (as well as salting and peppering the fish itself, AND the dredging flour). Also, to the batter and the dredging flour, I added a bit of granulated garlic. This made a world of difference. The first piece I cooked was pretty bland. After I made the changes, I cooked another small piece, and it was 100 times better.

Also, this recipe serves 4-6 people. I had to cook for 20, heh!

The head chef was there, too, but he opted for chicken. I was a bit disappointed, but one of my co-workers told me he could've eaten the whole pan of fish. That's all I needed to hear!
"I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food." - Julia Child
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