That Damn Cooking Thread

[Sanis Prent]

Premise simple: If you recently cooked something (ie, not from a box) and you liked it, share the recipe, be it general or specific.

This morning, I made Chicken Kashmiri. Here's how you do it:

First off, make some rice. Jasmine rice is best for this, which you can find anywhere. Make about 2 cups uncooked + 2.5 cups water. Bring to a boil, and cover on low heat for 20-25 minutes or so, or until the water's out of it. Use a rice cooker, even better!

For the rest:

Put two tablespoons of either vegetable oil or ghee (Indian clarified butter, check ethnic/hippy grocers) in either a covered saucepan or pot, and put it on medium heat. Add to that half a purple onion, sliced very thin, as well as a teaspoon of minced garlic and a teaspoon of minced ginger.

Add three or four teaspoons of curry powder. I'd suggest a curry with a mustard seed base. You'll know it by the very orange color. Use what you find tastiest, but the one I used has mustard seed, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, peppercorn, paprika and fennel I think. Curry is like bbq sauce, everybody has a style. Mustard-based curries are great with chicken.

Dice up three chicken breasts and add to the pot, and let that cook for about five minutes while covered.

Come back and add four tablespoons of plain yogurt to the pot. On top of that, add a tablespoon of flour. Stir, and let simmer on low for another 15-ish minutes.

Taste!

Add salt and/or chili powder to taste.

Rice should be done, so put some in a bowl and ladle this on top. If you have any indian flatbread like parathas or naan, now would be the time for it to sponge up any leftover curry when you're done.

[Yog]

If you recently cooked something (ie, not from a box)

I knew there was a catch.. :mneh

[Banner Laverick]

I've been dying to make Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes, because they are the awesomest things EVER. But I would use a mix, pre-made cones and icing so :p

[Yog]

I guess will add my own contibution.. although, slightly less ambitious than the OP.

1x filet of a chicken breast
1x bag of french vegetables (paprica, cucumber, onion, squash)

Cook in frying pan with olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste.

Delicious, high nutricient content and healthy. Yumm..

Takes about 5-10 minutes to make.

(this is what I am having right now)

[Randall Rudd]

I've been dying to make Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes, because they are the awesomest things EVER. But I would use a mix, pre-made cones and icing so :p

Well you aren't making those things in and of themselves from a kit, so I say it's fair play. Share it :)

You don't have to grind the chaff from wheat or anything. I just want things that aren't just "remove package from box, remove wrapper, microwave" that sort of thing. Things that involve you actually taking some things and putting them together to make something unique.

[Randall Rudd]

I guess will add my own contibution.. although, slightly less ambitious than the OP.

1x filet of a chicken breast
1x bag of french vegetables (paprica, cucumber, onion, squash)

Cook in frying pan with olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste.

Delicious, high nutricient content and healthy. Yumm..

Takes about 5-10 minutes to make.

(this is what I am having right now)

This is awesome. I've done something similar but with tilapia instead of chicken. Very clean, healthy food.

[Banner Laverick]

My mum made these when I was in grade-school, and I distinctly remember bragging to my friends that my mum had made them ^_^;

You need your favorite cake-mix (store or home-made.), ice cream cones (the flat bottom ones) and icing/sprinkles/etc.

You make the cake mix, fill the cones 2/3s full. The cones are like the little paper cups - they go into the muffin tin. Bake according to the directions, let cool then ice. If some of the cake spills over the top, ice it and make it look like dripping ice cream.

It's a super easy recipe, but the results - especially if you're a child, or someone who is cooking-challenged - are pretty impressive. :)

[Randall Rudd]

I am totally making that for my team at work. I'm always intimidated by baking (which is much harder than cooking) so this sounds like something I could try and be okay with :)

[Park Kraken]

Bacon Roll-ups:

1xPack of Center Cut Bacon
2xCans of Whole Water Chestnuts
Toothpicks
1xCup of Ketchup
1xCup of Brown Sugar

Combine the Ketchup and Brown Sugar into a bowl, mix until well blended, put aside for now.

Take a knife, slice the pack of bacon in half. Then, after draining the chestnuts, roll a piece of bacon around a chestnut, then stick a toothpick through it to hold the bacon in place. Put the bacon rollup into a round 9x9 sized pan or so. Repeat until either the chestnuts or the bacon is all gone.

Then pour the blended sauce over the rollups, and proceed to bake in 350 degree oven for one hour. Enjoy!



Jalapeno Rollups:

2xJars of Jalapeno halves
1xPack of Centercut Bacon
1xTub of Sour Cream
Toothpicks
A layer of tin foil

Take a Jalapeno halve, carefully put slightly less than a teaspoon or so of sour cream into it, before wrapping a piece of bacon around the jalapeno and sour cream, before finally sticking a toothpick through it to hold the bacon in place (Bacon pack should have been cut in half with knife beforehand). Proceed to do this until either the jalapeno or bacon is gone, then place on tin foil on the grill, and grill until bacon is done. Then eat and enjoy! BTW, best (although very hot) when eaten right off of the grill.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Chicken breasts, thawed and cut into chunks.
Cream of chicken soup

Put into crock pot, cook on high (or low depending on how long you have it cooking) until chicken is cooked.

Serve over rice.

:yum

[Jekaan Oludh]

Bananas, frozen cod, grated cheese, fresh spinach, cream. Quantities not necessary here, just use as you see fit.

Put the fish in a large baking form. Sprinkle salt, pepper and lemonjuice over it.
Cut bananas into slices and layer over the fish.
Add layer of spinach.
Mix cream and grated cheese in a bowl with some more salt, pepper, nutmeg, and whatever other spices you like (I usually add a little Maggi seasoning). Spread cheese mix over the spinach.
Bake in the oven for at least 40 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Might sound odd, but it's a total hit with children AND adults.

[Dasquian Belargic]

This thread is making me so hungry. We're making some kind of chicken based meal tonight but I'm not sure what! Maybe something from this thread. :D

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Ohhhh I got another one for chicken then... created it in a fit of anger when my ex was still living here and he kept complaining about German food one time too many... the original thought was to create something out of all the things he usually ate and make it taste nasty, but somehow it surprised me by tasting rather good and sort of became my last resort many times.

You'll need:
A bag of Doritos (tortilla chips, I used the Cool ranch flavor)
2 large chicken breasts
Grated cheese
1 pint of milk
Spices
A jar of salsa, if you like

Crush the bag of tortilla chips.
Take the chicken breasts and dice them.
Grease a baking dish.
In a bowl mix the chicken with as much grated cheese as you like, and add whatever spices you like (nutmeg, chili, pepper, salt, etc).
Put the chicken mix into the baking dish and spread it out, then pour most of the milk over it and stir. If you decide to add the salsa, then spread the salsa over the chicken, and finally top it with all the crushed chips, and add the remainder of the milk (so the chips don't burn too badly).
Bake for about 40 mins)

Serve with whatever you want.

[Flux]

Wei has a chili recipe that rules. It's a big hit at our DnD sessions. I'll get it from him later on today.

[Wei Wu Wei]

I'll get it to you guys myself. I'm in Macon at the moment and not near my chili recipe.

It's a white chili recipe I learned from the head of the Christianity Department when I was in college. The man can do all sorts of neat things--theology, baseball, and cooking.

White Chili

4 or 5 split chicken breasts
5 to 6 cups of Chicken Broth
4 or 5 cans of Great Northern Beans (Navy beans work too)
1 large onion, sliced thin or chopped
1 small can chopped green chilies
1 jar medium salsa
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper (cayenne is good)
1/2 cup canola oil
3 or 4 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Boil for or five split chicken breasts in just enough water to cover them for 30-35 minutes; keep the skin on to have a richer broth. Set aside to cool (I put mine in the fridge; better yet, do the chicken a day ahead). When cool, Shred.

In a large pot bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the onions and cook until tender. Add remaining ingredients then return to a brisk boil, then reduce to what Julia Childs calls the "smiling simmer."

If you want to you can allow the soup to simmer 30-45 minutes and serve. I transferred the soup to my crock pot and cooked in on low for 12 or more hours. It won't break the beans and may even allow the flavors to blend.

Serve hot and garnish with fresh chopped cilantro, cheeses, sour cream, jalapeño peppers, and hot sauce, depending upon the taste of the consumers.

Good with cornbread, tortilla chips, and such.

[General Dan]

Keeping with my recent Indian food kick, here is paneer. Theoretically easy to make! It's very mild-flavored cheese, and goes great with other food.

Get a saucepan and fill it with whole milk. Leave a bit of room because you want to bring this to a boil, and not boil it over like I did the first time I made this.

Heat the saucepan on high heat, and stir the milk frequently to keep it from browning on the bottom. Just as the milk begins to boil, switch down to medium/low heat, and add to this a mix of spices. I've made two batches of this using dried mint leaves and peppercorns in one, and cilantro & poppy seeds in the other. Use about 1-2 teaspoons of your total spice mixture, but pretty much whatever you want is good. More potent herbs work well here because the cheese has very little flavor. Keep in mind you're making this to complement indian food, so things like cumin, fennel, cardamom, etc would also do well here.

With your herbs in, keep stirring. Now, you want to incrementally add an acidic substance to the milk. Most common is lemon juice or vinegar. You can also use powdered citric acid if you have access. I used lemon juice for mine. Add about a teaspoon at a time, and stir throughout. You'll notice the milk start to curdle. Be careful not to add a lot of the acid, or your cheese will taste sour, and in the case of vinegar, stink too. Keep adding bit by bit and stirring, until you notice the liquid start to go from opaque to transluscent. Little Miss Muffett, you've just made curds and whey. The curds are the little scrambled egg looking bits. You want to keep those.

From here, put a cheese cloth or a mulsim cloth in a collander, and pour your curds and whey into this while over a sink. Scoop any stay-behind curds from the saucepan and put into the cheese cloth. Don't bother scraping any bits stuck to the pan, they're brown and will only make your cheese look ugly.

Now, take the ends of the cheese cloth and bring them up, giving the curds a good squeeze over the collander before twisting the ends up so that the cloth forms a little bag around the curds. Make this tight, but not so tight that you're clamping down on the thing.

This is where it gets MacGuyverish. Take a plate, flip your collander upside down, and rest your cheesecloth and curds on top. Take something with a little weight to it and place it on top of the cheesecloth bag. A little weight is good, but don't go overboard. This is to gently keep presure and remove excess moisture from the cheese while it sets. You don't want to put something too heavy on this, otherwise your cheese will be pretty hard. You want it to have some stiffness, but some spring too. It'll have a consistency like mozzarella or medium firm tofu.

Store this bizarro contraption in a cool and dry place overnight. The next day, you should in theory have a nice patty-shaped disc of cheese in your cloth. Take it out, put it on a plate, and cut it into little cubes, about 1", but however you prefer.

This stuff complements curries and other indian dishes very well. Paneer Mattar is probably the most well known, which is fried paneer and pan-fried onions and snow peas, diced chilis, with garam masala and a few other spices.

You can also light-coat this in gram flour or all purpose flour to make a nice appetizer that goes well with chutney.

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Alrightie, I guess it's time to share my recipe for Irish Soda Bread. I got this from my landlady while staying in one of the Gaeltacht areas (the areas in Ireland where they actually still speak Irish Gaelic as their first language) doing a language course and it tastes great either for breakfast with butter and orange marmelade or for any other meal with soup - just butter and dip. Yumm...

3 cups of wholewheat flour
1/2 cup of plain flour
1 cup of either ground oats or bran (or a mix of both)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 stick of butter, at room temperature
2 - 2 1/2 cups of cold buttermilk

You will need a round or oval baking dish at least 5 inches high and 8 wide, that can be covered up. Originally these were baked in a dutch oven, but I don't have any so I've got a round baking dish with a glass lid that I use, which works just as well.

Grease baking dish, and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
Combine all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Rub in butter. Add buttermilk. Knead into round shape.
The resulting dough should be moist but firm. If the dough still sticks to the side of the bowl while kneading, it's too moist. Don't over-knead, however.
Put the dough into the baking dish. It should fit well into the baking dish, you can "push" it in form if you need. Make a cross cut into the top, and put it into the oven.
Bake it - COVERED UP - for 30 minutes in the middle of the oven. Then remove the lid and let it bake for another 15 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Take it out of the baking dish and let it cool down. Tastes best when still slightly warm. It's rather crumbly, not like ordinary white bread, so don't worry if the bread doesn't look like anything else you've ever seen.

* If you're in a higher altitude or the bread doesn't rise at all (it doesn't rise much but it should at least fill out the baking dish), add a teaspoon of baking powder to the dry ingredients.
* I've recently added a 1/4 cup of malt flour to the mix, and it gives it a slightly different taste and makes it more crunchy, so you can try that, too.

[Liam Jinn]

Alright people, I'm gonna need pictures of the finished products. Oh, and Charley how do you make a beer milkshake?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Making a beer milkshake is easy.

You'll need:

Vanilla ice cream
Guiness
Jameson (optional)
Irish Cream (optional)
Ice
A blender

In the blender, drop as much ice cream into it as you feel like; it's pretty subjective to your tastes, so do whatever you want with that. Then, add in a 12 ounce bottle of Guiness. If you're feeling froggy you can put in a shot of Jameson and a shot of Irish cream, too ;) You can call it an Irish Ice Bomb or something, heh.

Blend that up. It might not be milkshake consistency, but that's what the ice is for. Like the ice cream, the ice is all up to you on how much you put in and how thick you want your shake. Blend it up some more, and tada! Beer milkshake :D

[Wyl Staedtler]

Funeral Rice. Super easy, super good.

1 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 cinnamon sticks (or if you have to, about 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
2 tablespoons sugar (we use yellow sugar, but light brown sugar will do)
1/2 cup seedless raisins or golden raisins
Water to cook the rice. Eyeball it.

1. Put everything in a pot.

2. Cook rice in your preferred way.

3. Remove cinnamon sticks before eating. Enjoy! :yum

[Batdude]

I made me some falafel!

Here's how you can do it too!

Use this crap:

1 15 ounce can of garbanzo beans (chicpeas) OR an equivalent amount of raw that have been soaked and cooked previously
1 onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 cup bread crumbs
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 egg
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon fine ground kosher salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
dash of pepper
rice flour (for coating)
sesame seeds (for coating)
oil (for frying - I use canola)

Take your chicpeas in a bowl and mash the hell out of them with your big meatfists! Leave no chicpea unmolested! No, but seriously, get them good and mooshed up. Take a food processor and zip the onions, parsley, and garlic, adding to the mix. In a separate bowl, mix an egg, cumin, corriander, salt, oil, lime juice, cayenne, and pepper, and stir until its a uniform goop. Add to main bowl and stir. It's going to be slick and sticky, so add a cup of breadcrumbs bit by bit. You may use more or less than a cup, the important thing is that your mix should be as dry as it can manage but still hold together.

Now in a separate small dish, pour some rice flour and sesame seeds, and spread them around.

You should have a mess that looks like this:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/falafelmix.jpg

Take little balls of dough about the size of a golf ball, flatten them slightly and press them into the rice flour and sesame seed mix before you lay them on a cookie sheet or whatever. Once all the balls are formed and dusted, put the tray or sheet in the fridge for about 30 minutes so they can cool and set a bit.

While you're doing that, prepare your frying implement. I prefer to pan fry in a cast iron skillet, but you can do as you wish. Once your oil gets good and hot, drop those babies in!

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/falafelfry.jpg

It'll take a bit to get a good cooking, so be patient. Check the sides occasionally, flip when you must, and drink a beer. Relax.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/falafeldone.jpg

Eventually they will be done. If you have a cooling rack, I highly recommend you use it to put these on. It'll drain excess oil and make it taste so much better. When you put the falafel patties on the rack, try adding a little pinch of finely ground kosher salt to each one. It makes it taste absolutely divine!

Now, I also made some tzatziki for this, which was pretty easy too. Here's what you'll want:

1 cup regular plain yogurt (don't buy that low fat crap )
2 teaspoons dill weed
1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 tablespoon tahini
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Take the cucumber and run it through the food processor. Should end up with something akin to applesauce. Strain as much water as you can from this slop, and add it to a cup of yogurt. Add in dill weed, salt, pepper, and tahini. Stir.

Easy, huh?

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/tzatziki.jpg


I also made mutabbal, which is a dip that is very similar to baba ghannouj, if you've had that. I've heard some people call baba ghannouj mutabbal, and mutabbal baba ghannouj. The way it's been explained to me is that mutabbal generally has more tahini, but I've seen baba ghannouj recipes with as much as I used, so who knows.

I started eating this about a year ago, when a local shop near my work had opened up. They had great hommous, but I always kept coming back for this. It's got a very rich, smoky flavor, and goes great with pita or any flatbread.

Here's what you need:

Eggplants! (3 medium-ish ones or 2 large ones)
Tahini - 3 tablespoons
Juice from one lime
Tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 chili pepper, finely chopped
Kosher salt, to taste
Wood chips (for smoking on a grill)
Foil

First off, grill your eggplants. If you have a gas or charcoal grill, do what you can do get it ready to grill on a low/medium heat. Once that's done, take two handfuls of wood chips and put them in a pouch made from aluminum foil. Poke holes in that pouch so that smoke can get out. When you're ready, put that over the coals or element or whatnot, and then put your eggplants on.

I used hickory chips because thats what I had, and I love hickory smoke. Consider this arabic food with a southern accent ;)

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/eggplant.jpg

Cover that and cook for 30-45 minutes, or until your eggplants get a general level of prunage. They'll start to look very wrinkly. Check back every 10 or so minutes and flip when necessary. Expect the skin to crack, tear, and maybe burn a little. That's okay.

When you're done, they should look something like this:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/eggplantdone.jpg

Now, let them cool for a good 25 minutes or more, and get a bowl or dish or something. Cut the eggplant heads off and then gently squeeze the lovecraftian nightmare that is the eggplants gross-looking innards into that bowl. Eeeewwww!

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/mutabbal.jpg

This picture does no justice, it looked like a monster I was scared.

Take this abomination and put it into a collander, giving a good press to get as much moisture out as possible before returning to your bowl.

Combine the other ingredients into a separate bowl and stir until its a uniform slop, then pour that into the other bowl. The picture above shows that bowl to the right. I'm sure you figured that out already.

From here, it's up to you. If you like traditional mutabbal, you can mash apart the ghastly pulp until its a good stringy mush. This results in a good and chunky dip.

I myself prefer it the way I was introduced to it, which is more of a refined dip. To that end, I used a blender on the mix setting to get a more uniform consistency, without it being runny. As with most dips from the Levant, it's usually dressed up with olive oil drizzled on top and some other garnish. For mine, I added pine nuts and a little dash of cumin.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/arabicdinner.jpg

Here's the final result, served with the aforementioned very very delicious falafel & tzatziki in an italian herb flatbread with a Dos Equis & lime.

Dos Equis and lime, you may gnash your teeth at me, and ask how I dare to defile the authenticity of this meal. To that, I say eat me, because this beer is delicious and I've been drinking it all day when I was grilling!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Ohhh looks so tasty. I need to try that soon!

[Batdude]

I will say this - I've never had tastier falafel or tzatziki in my life. I'm normally pretty modest about what I cook, but this was the best I've eaten, and I've had some very good falafel before.

The mutabbal was not as good as stuff I've had before, but that's a high bar to set. I made mine a little too spicy, but I'm going to dial it down slightly.

[Banner Laverick]

Dos Equis and lime, you may gnash your teeth at me, and ask how I dare to defile the authenticity of this meal. To that, I say eat me, because this beer is delicious and I've been drinking it all day when I was grilling!

Well, you are the worlds' most interesting man (http://staythirstymyfriends.com/), Charley XD

[Alpha]

God I hate this thread so much right now. I'm stuck at work and hungry...I'll add something soon.

[Wyl Staedtler]

No pics unfortunately, which proves what a hit this dish was!

Turkish Pilaf with Pistachios and Stuff

1 cup (brown) basmati rice
2 cups water
approx 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8-1/4 cup raisins, depending on your tastes (zereshk would be much better, but I couldn't find any. Search out your local Middle Eastern stores.)
salt

2 medium white onions, minced
8-12 ounces eggplant, diced
1/2 cup fat-free vegetable broth (can use other broth, but we are vegetarians here :mneh)
16 ounces chickpeas, cooked
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 large tomato, chopped loose
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
about 1/4 cup unsalted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped/crushed
salt to taste

Cook rice with water, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, raisins (or zereshk), and salt until rice is tender.

Sauté onions in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until they begin to brown and everyone is drooling (really, who can resist the smell of onions in butter?) Add the eggplant and cook for a few more minutes. Add the vegetable broth, cover, and cook until the eggplant is tender, about 8-10 more minutes.

Add the cooked rice to the eggplant, along with the chickpeas and cinnamon. Now, mine was a little dry so I added a little more vegetable broth. Simmer for about 5 minutes, to allow flavors to combine. Just before serving, add the tomato and chopped parsley. Add salt to taste and serve topped with pistachios.


I'm sure this would taste even better the next day, but we didn't have any left to prove that! :D

[Colonel Karrnage]

I like greek food and this is easy as long as you have two hours to kill and the tedium of arranging fillo excites you.

Spanakopita

Three six ounce bags of baby spinach
3 tablespoons olive oil
Half cup fresh parsley
Half a white onion
1 clove crushed garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon dill weed
1 teaspoon oregano
Three eggs
1 pound traditional Feta cheese
Half pound of fillo dough (1 roll)
1.5 sticks of butter
Kosher salt
Black pepper

One bag at a time, simmer the spinach with a tablespoon of olive oil and a little bit of your garlic. Do this on medium-low heat, stirring the leaves until uniformly wilted. Once each batch of spinach is done, put that in a food processor or a dish if you'll chop by hand. Chop wilted spinach finely. Cut your half onion into moons and cook on medium heat with some oil and two pinches of kosher salt until tender and translucent. Chop finely. Chop parsley finely. Combine ingredients.

Crumble your feta into a bowl with your three eggs, scrambled. Stir well, add oregano and dill weed, a teaspoon of black pepper and two pinches of kosher salt. Combine this with your chopped veggies and stir until its a chunky paste.

This is mine. I pretty much just dumped everything all carefree-like into my new and kickass food processor and let it go to town. The results were great:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/spanakopita1.jpg

Now, the tedious part:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/spanakopita2.jpg

On a table, arrange a sheet of wax paper to unroll your fillo dough. Keep the stack of sheets covered with a damp towel, and melt your butter in a pan. In a baking dish, begin arranging your fillo sheets carefully, brushing each sheet with a liberal glaze of butter before adding another. This is tedious so you probably want to sit down and focus on the task. Put half of the sheets down in this fashion, and then slather on your filling paste, taking care to leave about a half inch of space between the filling and the edge of the fillo stack.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/spanakopita3.jpg

Once done, finish adding fillo layers, buttering each one that goes on until you use the whole roll.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/spanakopita4.jpg

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees, and while waiting, take a very sharp knife and carefully cut the top layers of fillo, scoring them into pre-arranged slices. This keeps you from cracking the upper crust when you slice it. Of course I found this out the hard way on mine, and will correct that the next time I cook this. Pop the dish in the oven and cook for one hour, or until the top is a golden brown.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/LoungieMu/spanakopita6.jpg

Aside from a bit of crackage on top, this turned out really really well. The egg and feta binds the spinach and veggies really nicely and its something that you can eat with your hands, like baklava.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Okay so how's this - you and Christin can live with James and I rent-free if you cook dinner every night. Sound good?

[Colonel Karrnage]

Throw in washing dishes and its a deal :D

[Wyl Staedtler]

That's what the kids are for ;)

[Colonel Karrnage]

Done deal :smokin

If only your little island didn't hate guns and freedom it would be perfection!

[Lucianus Adair]

I made portobello cheeseburgers and yam fries the other night. Ummm-yum-yum. :D

....I'm hungry. Damn it.

[Khendon Sevon]

I call this:

What I had in the 'fridge 1.0
Okay, really? It's angel hair pasta in shrimp sauce.

What I had:
- Bag of frozen, precooked shrimp
- Angel hair pasta
- Fresh basil (hahahaha, why is that in there?)
- Salt/Pepper
- Organic olive oil
- 3 Blind Moose Pino Grigio
- Cherry tomatoes

I planned none of this. So, consider revision if you randomly find yourself wanting to make this.

I quick thawed my shrimp under cold water. I didn't plan dinner out at all; so, regular thawing was out of the question.

I sliced all of the tails off the shrimp and chopped up about three of them (the actual shrimps, not the tails). They went in a cup of water (by cup, I mean, I took an actual glass cup full of water and poured it in). I only have a single sauté pan, so it all went in a small pot.

Next went in salt (I always go sparingly on the salt) and a nice helping of pepper and fresh basil that I chopped pretty fine. On went the lid.

In my sauté pan went a pool of olive oil. I don't measure things out. I threw the heat on about medium and let it warm up.

On the flip side, I filled a pot with cold water to begin boiling in prep. for my angel haired pasta. I didn't throw it on the heat just yet, though. Angel hair pasta cooks quickly, so there's no rush.

After the oil had heated up nicely, I threw the shrimp in. They sizzled up nicely. Now, they're pre-cooked, so you don't want to overdo it.

Into the sauté pan went the pot with the chopped up shrimp. Don't let any of that shrimp or shrimp tails in! It's just for the juice.

Sizzle, sizzle, yummy smell.

Let more of the water burn off.

Make sure you turn the heat on that pot for the angel hair pasta. When it starts to boil, throw in the angel hair and turn the heat down a bit.

Add the yummy, yummy, good for my tummy wine to your (my? what's happening with my writing!?) sauté.

When the angel hair is ready (it's going to continue cooking even when it's off the heat, so don't overdo it), strain it and throw it in the sauté pan with everything else. Throw in a bit more chopped basil.

At the last minute, throw in the cherry tomatoes (sliced)... mmm. I don't like them mushy. That's just wrong.

I didn't have too much angel hair pasta, sadly, so I had to drain some of that glorious juice. Oh well.

Mix, throw on a plate, and pour yourself a glass of that lovely wine.

And... apparently, I forgot to bring the cable for my digital with me to Los Angeles. C'est la vie.

By the by, I'd suggest adding garlic to that olive oil in the sauté pan. Mm... garlic.

Well, there you have it. It's not the best. But, it's what I had in my 'fridge.

(by the by, every time I said sauté, I totally meant sauce pan... whatever)

[Nya Halcyon]

I'm back to baking bread again tonight so here's #1:

Irish Soda Bread v.1

I spent a summer in one of the Gaelic-speaking areas of Ireland when learning the language, and was staying in a family where the woman of the house was a terrific cook. We had four-course meals every day (needless to say I put on a few pounds) and as a starter there would be a different soup every day, served with thick-cut freshly baked brown soda bread slices spread with salted butter. I spent a lot more time learning Irish cookery from her than the Gaelic language (although I still know what most of the cooking ingredients are called as Gaéilge), and nowadays I have to supply the entire family with the brown bread she taught me how to make. So this is the recipe for it.

If you happen to have a Dutch Oven - that works best for baking it in; since I don't have one I just use a round corning dish with a glass lid on it, which works just as well.

Ingredients:

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3 cups wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain flour (a quarter of this can be replaced by malt flour if you like - it makes it a bit crunchy)
1/2 cup wheat germ (can be replaced with instant oats)
1/2 cup wheat bran (can be replaced by ground oatmeal)

1 tbsp butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 level tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2-3 cups buttermilk

Preparation:

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Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a high baking dish (see picture).

Mix all the dry ingredients well so the baking soda is spread all over.

Cut the butter in small lumps and rub them into the dry mix.

Add the buttermilk slowly, bit by bit, and stir with a wooden spoon, then knead with your hands. Don't handle it too long - it should just be kneaded enough to make one big, still moist lump: enough for the moisture to stick to your fingers, but not the dough itself.

Put the lump into the baking dish, cut a cross into the top. Put the lid on the baking dish and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, then take it off and bake for another 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean

Remove from oven, remove from dish and cool on a wiring rack.

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This bread has a troubling concistency if cut while still hot: it looks like it's underdone, and it crumbles like crazy. Wait until it's cooled down a bit, then cut into finger thick slices - it's still crumbly, but very rich and extremely yummy.

[Wyl Staedtler]

I have no pictures because I am sick and didn't take any but at least I cooked something okay?

Salt-Crusted Pineapple

You will need: One pineapple (preferably a baby one, because they're sweeter; if not just use a smallish regular one)
Sea salt
Chinese five-spice
Egg whites
Cloves
Mascarpone cheese
Fresh herbs

1. Take about two big handfuls (both hands cupped = one handful) of salt and stick it in a bowl. Add about two tablespoons of Chinese five-spice. Mix.

2. Add the egg whites and mix gently. The salt shouldn't be too wet - you want it sort of the same consistency as sand-castle building sand.

3. Stick the cloves in the pineapple, all around, just like you stud them into a ham. I used about eight.

4. Carefully crust the entire pineapple (not the stalk) with the salt. Place a little mound of salt on a baking tray, to make a stand for the pineapple.

5. Bake in the oven at 400 F for about twenty minutes.

6. While it's baking, mix a handful of fresh herb into the mascarpone cheese. We happened to have basil on hand in the garden so I shredded that and added it in. You don't have to use a whole lot of cheese - a few tablespoons will do.

7. Take out the pineapple, smash the salt off. Quarter it, and gently loosen the fruit from the skin. Serve with the herbed cheese.

8. Try not to let your tastebuds explode.