I was gonna threadomance the old one, but nobody has posted in it since 2018, so best to leave it be.
Past couple of years, my now former flatmate (all on good terms) has handled the cooking, as he got home long before I did during my commuting days. But as he is indeed now former, it’s down to me and me slightly atrophied culinary skills.
He moved out on Friday afternoon, and I’ve spent the weekend getting the kitchen cleaned to my exacting standards. And that done? Broke out the air fryer*, and attempted Buffalo Wings.
The spice recipe I used was amazing. It comes from this website. To save you scrolling, the constituent parts should be...
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of ginger powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of salt
As I couldn’t find Onion Powder or Granules, I ended up using Onion salt in its place, substituting it for the salt as well, so my mix was one teaspoon down by volume. Still wound up with a load of it, so popped it in an empty jar with a shaker top.
Hot sauce was bog standard Frank’s & Butter. 200c for 15ish minutes later, I was super chuffed with the outcome. I didn’t pre-treat the wings beyond the spice mix, so they could’ve been crispier, but they were incredibly tasty all the same.
Still got more wings in the fridge (I can fit about five after jointing in the air fryer), so will be repeating tomorrow night for dinner. I’ve also got a fair amount of the sauce left over. Bit of cling film over the top once it’s cooled, and it can go in the fridge for reheating tomorrow.
I’m by no means a wing expert, so I’m happy to bow to far greater authority, but these were pretty top notch in my experience. Give it a go, it’s super easy. Best bit? Whilst I can’t speak for prices in your area, the wings and spices came to just shy of £10, with loads of the spices left over after I made my mix. This is a super cheap snack or quick dinner dish. Next time I want to make them, I’m only needing to stump up £1.49 for another kilo of Wings, plus maybe another quid for a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot.
*Best. Kitchen. Gadget. Ever. A doddle to use, and a satisfyingly healthy alternative to deep frying. If you’ve not got one already, I can recommend. Not massively convinced there’s much point in a high end one. Mid range is what I’ve got and it’s perfectly dandy!
Probably mentioned this in a previous thread, but I highly recommend James May's new cookbook, some great recipes in there, all easy to do with a fair bit of his humour thrown in.
Made a pretty decent curry from it a little while ago. I did cheat and use a jar of sauce instead of making a marinade (which while easy in itself, would have had to have been left overnight, didn't have time for that), as well as spag-bol and an interesting Israeli dish called shakuka.
Nothing fancy, but good old fashioned comfort food. And lunch will be meatloaf sandwiches on homemade bread that I made yesterday until one or the other runs out.
Mmmmm.
One of my favorite dinners, which used to just be for my birthday as The Ex disliked it, and I didn’t want to force it on her. But if I’m just cooking for myself? Why not my make what I like? I got out of the habit of thinking of it as an everyday kind of meal, which frankly it is.
Meat soup for me today. Made week's share while at it. Better success than month ago when i tried it first time ever after redoing my whole diet as part of operation weight loss.
Been recently been using tons of mushrooms and tofu. Favourite ones is cooking those plus tofu, chili and sauce made out of soy sauce, sriracha chili sauce, agave serup, sesame oil and mirin. Plus sesam seeds. Dirt easy to make and after sauce ingredients bought(lasts quite a while) very cheap. No meat so vegetaniar friendly i think.
Nothing fancy, but good old fashioned comfort food. And lunch will be meatloaf sandwiches on homemade bread that I made yesterday until one or the other runs out.
Mmmmm.
One of my favorite dinners, which used to just be for my birthday as The Ex disliked it, and I didn’t want to force it on her. But if I’m just cooking for myself? Why not my make what I like? I got out of the habit of thinking of it as an everyday kind of meal, which frankly it is.
I think I’ve only eaten meatloaf the once. I remember it specifically because it was at my Granny’s, and awfully dry. She was a wonderful, amazing woman, but bless her, cooking wasn’t her forte. Other than her breaded fish and chips. That remains a firm favourite!
Think I may try another jambalaya soon. I’ve made it before, but the recipe didn’t use fresh veg trinity, instead calling for a spice mix out a jar. Seems the main trick is getting your roux right. Other than the right mix of oil to flour, it’s the stirring it and not burning it that’ll take practice.
I’m also keen to reduce my overall portion size. Due to most recipes being for 2+ servings, it’s very easy to over fill your plate. Reckon I’ll do two person recipes, and only serve half, and have the other half the next day.
But tonight, it’s more chicken wings. The remainder in the fridge are good for another day or two, but one does not mess around with raw chicken! And I’m keen to reduce food waste as well. My town’s main supermarket is right behind my house, so I need to normalise shopping fresh, rather than using frozen. Especially for stuff like Bell Peppers and Onions. I find the frozen, pre-cut or diced stuff to like body and crunch, and even a little of the sweetness.
Also need to get me some ziplock freezer bags, so I can save the wing tips for stock. This is useful for health reasons as well, as off-the-shelf stock tends to have a crazy amount of salt. Whilst I’m in surprisingly good shape for a lazy git, I am over 40 now, so need to be eating better!
Automatically Appended Next Post: And must remember to locate my Wok.
I know I’ve got one, I just haven’t seen it for a while. And it’s hard to get much healthier or tastier than a stir fry!
Yep. Home made Pizza is ace! And pretty flipping cheap, too.
Though if like me you live alone, I’d recommend investing in some dinky Tupperware boxes. Once you’ve made your sauce (again, really easy), you can decant it into more or less single pizza side portions and freeze it,
For toppings? No shame in raiding the bargain aisle of the supermarket, or just buying your favourites and again portioning and freezing.
Only thing you really need fresh is your choice of cheese for the topping. And if you’re really mental, home made Mozzarella isn’t massive difficult
Though if like me you live alone, I’d recommend investing in some dinky Tupperware boxes. Once you’ve made your sauce (again, really easy), you can decant it into more or less single pizza side portions and freeze it,
For toppings? No shame in raiding the bargain aisle of the supermarket, or just buying your favourites and again portioning and freezing.
Only thing you really need fresh is your choice of cheese for the topping. And if you’re really mental, home made Mozzarella isn’t massive difficult
Making my own Mozzarella is on my to-do list some day. I already do the sauce and dough by scratch, seems the next logical step. I’ve made my own ricotta before, but that’s crazy easy.
Last night was a bit bonkers for me personally. . . my household is pushing more conscientiously toward healthier eating, and that meant a new, never before tried recipe!
It was, on the face of it, relatively simple sounding: It's spinach and feta stuffed chicken breast. . . . But, there's a LOT happening at the same time in step one. And, I had to improvise as the recipe called for something I apparently dont have ready access to.
The quick and dirty, from memory points of the recipe, you'll need:
Chicken breast, spinach, feta, garlic, thyme, pine nuts, butter, and Phyllo dough.
I didn't have phyllo dough, so I tried this out with pre-made puff pastry from the refrigerated section of the grocery store.
Basically, you wilt the spinach a tiny bit in a frying pan, dump that into a collander and squeeze out excess water. Put that into a big bowl with everything except the chicken, dough and butter.
Pound the hell out of the chicken, till its around 1/2" thick. Put a bit of the spinach/cheese mix in the middle of a breast. Roll it up, then butter a piece of phyllo, and roll the chicken into it.
Veldrain wrote: Aldi's finally got my chicken nuggets in stock so had some General Tso's and rice.
Gluten-free is a pain but when they have these in stock everything is right with the world.
GF is something I’m needing to learn, as my Lass is coeliac. Who knew gluten was pretty much everywhere! Before the second lockdown, we had a Beige Dinner (nuggets, smiley faces, curly fries etc) because it’s tasty, even if it is nutritionally near negative. She gave me a masterclass on what to buy.
And I’ll tell you what, Birdseye GF Fish Fingers are amazing. Much crispier coating, which helps keep the juices in. They’re a wee bit more expensive for what they are, but I’m a convert on that count.
The rest of my recipes I do need to stop and think on each one. She’s a right sweet tooth, so reckon my rocky road will go down. I use vegan marshmallows anyway (I used to make them at work, and going vegan sorts pretty much any dietary requirement), just need to check glacé Cherries, and ensure GF biccies.
I know it’s a common trope to hear people moaning about dietary preference/necessity, but I very much embrace it as a challenge to my skills. Mostly because I love my food, and I don’t like to see people missing out when I’ve made sharing food.
I've always enjoyed cooking and moving away from home means I can cook what I want. This Monday I made egg fried rice for the first time with leftover rice from Sunday's dinner.
I was given the Leon one pot cooking book the Christmas before last and I got a load of recipes out of it, as did the girlfriend as I've been teaching her how to cook recipes she wants to learn.
I was given the Hairy Bikers great curries book this Christmas and I've made their basic curry, balti and dhansak this year so far with plans to do a whole load more.
This evening we're having risotto, something I'd never have eaten if it wasn't for trying out cook books.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:GF is something I’m needing to learn, as my Lass is coeliac. Who knew gluten was pretty much everywhere! Before the second lockdown, we had a Beige Dinner (nuggets, smiley faces, curly fries etc) because it’s tasty, even if it is nutritionally near negative. She gave me a masterclass on what to buy.
And I’ll tell you what, Birdseye GF Fish Fingers are amazing. Much crispier coating, which helps keep the juices in. They’re a wee bit more expensive for what they are, but I’m a convert on that count.
The rest of my recipes I do need to stop and think on each one. She’s a right sweet tooth, so reckon my rocky road will go down. I use vegan marshmallows anyway (I used to make them at work, and going vegan sorts pretty much any dietary requirement), just need to check glacé Cherries, and ensure GF biccies.
I know it’s a common trope to hear people moaning about dietary preference/necessity, but I very much embrace it as a challenge to my skills. Mostly because I love my food, and I don’t like to see people missing out when I’ve made sharing food.
One of my friends if GF, so it’s on my radar and pings every time I find a good recipe.
Have you tried making meringues? If you can whip egg whites that’s 90% of the work. You can fold in all sorts of stuff to give them character, I like crushed walnuts and chocolate chips. Also macarons and macaroons are both GF and yummy although one is a lot more work then the other. I make candied pecans which go over well with the crowd that are also GF. Plenty of yummy snacks out there without gluten.
Tyranid Horde wrote:
This evening we're having risotto, something I'd never have eaten if it wasn't for trying out cook books.
I’m a big fan of risottos. I make a mushroom one not infrequently. They are kinda like fried rice, where you can just kinda toss any scraps of leftovers in there and it will turn out fine though. Within reason.
Never tried a risotto myself, or even eaten much of it. Mumsie was the cook in our house, and she couldn’t stand it!
Might do the Roast Chicken plan this weekend.
Day one - Roast Chicken with all the trimmings.
Day two - use prime meat left overs for a chicken curry (from scratch, or from a jar depending on preference and available time
Day three - break down the carcass, picking it clean as you can. Mix meat with fresh peas and peppers into couscous (or a risotto type dish in general. Anything where the meat is mostly there for texture as taste)
Put the remaining carcass in the stock pot and get making stock.
Even with higher welfare chicken, it becomes really cost effective. Can even enjoy the wings and legs as lunch food on day two and day three.
Of course, chicken being chicken, I wouldn’t push it past the three day mark!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also need to try home made burgers soon. I’ve got a burger press ring setup, which is pretty ace.
And as ever, the great advantage to making stuff from scratch is you’re in control of Things Not Terribly Healthy, such as the amount of salt, as you’re only adding for seasoning, not preservation.
You can also fiddle with the flavour profile, such as adding jalapeños to your patties.
I’ve never felt the need for a burger patty maker. How hard is it to make a disk by hand? I guess if you are going for max points on presentation.
Stuffed burgers can be fun. Add a little extra to the middle, rather than just toppings. One of my favorite cookout games is burger roulette. Form a dozen burgers with assorted things (cheddar/blue/Swiss cheese, plus mushrooms/bacon/jalapeños) who knows what’s coming off the grill? The first time I did it I just had one jalapeño burger (with cheddar), as the zinger, but it was really tasty, so next time I had a cookout, I made more.
I've always slow cooked a lot, due to work schedule, which has always been tasty, but a bit limiting.
It does allow you a great deal of freedom in what you use, especially allowing cheaper, lower quality cuts to turn out well.
Good for curries, stews, soups, etc.
Recently gotten into "cooking proper" more often, which has been a lot more interesting then I anticipated.
Can't follow a recipe to save my life - I like experimenting. In my defence, I've not had any truely total screw ups.
Sharpest lesson to date has been that white wine sauce for chicken needs to be on the "less acidic" side.
When it comes to recipes, I tend to be “by the book” the first time, especially when there’s a specific technique in play.
Once I know what it’s meant to taste like, I start deviating somewhat.
And when it comes to regional cooking, I tend to start with simpler recipes, so by the time I’m doing it the full traditional method (such as the aforementioned Jambalaya, following an Isaac Toupes recipe), I know what a close approximation is compared to the Real(ish) Thing.
But that’s just my preference and foible. The only time you’re cooking wrong is when you
A) burn down your house
B) use too much salt, rendering it inedible
C) using rotten ingredients
Automatically Appended Next Post: On the wine lesson? I’ll quote Keith Floyd (he was mental, but knew his stuff).
Nevelon wrote: I’ve never felt the need for a burger patty maker. How hard is it to make a disk by hand? I guess if you are going for max points on presentation.
Stuffed burgers can be fun. Add a little extra to the middle, rather than just toppings. One of my favorite cookout games is burger roulette. Form a dozen burgers with assorted things (cheddar/blue/Swiss cheese, plus mushrooms/bacon/jalapeños) who knows what’s coming off the grill? The first time I did it I just had one jalapeño burger (with cheddar), as the zinger, but it was really tasty, so next time I had a cookout, I made more.
I try to make my burgers by hand most of the time and they're fun to make too. Great for a barbeque or frying.
I also ventured into some vegetarian burgers last year and make them the odd time. Chickpea burgers are really easy and tasty with very little effort.
I now need to try out stuffing burgers, that just sounds fantastic.
For GF items, seriously check out Aldi's when they have things in stock. Their G-Life brand has a lot of good things. The cake mixes, bagels, and cheese biscuits are all good.
I will have to look for Birdseye Fish Fingers. That is one of the things I am still trying to find alternatives for.
Ever since i started watching cooking youtuber channels i have started trying to make more food.
My favroite is Shepards pie with ground beef and like a gak done of beer in it.
Recently i made chicken Kiev, it was time consuming, i didnt dry it like most do, i was too afraid, so i just baked it and it still turned out great.
On the wine lesson? I’ll quote Keith Floyd (he was mental, but knew his stuff).
If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it.
Ah... I won't drink any wine. Or alcohol in general. Does that mean I can't cook with it at all now?
I dunno, I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I do cook with it quite a lot. Same goes for olive oil.
Also, most alcoholic drinks lose their alcohol when used for cooking assuming the original percentage was <30%-ish.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: All about maintaining a calorie reduction. What you actually eat makes little to no difference
I have been tempted by those Japanese octopus pancake things. But you need specific equipment, and I’m really not sure I can be bothered!
Automatically Appended Next Post: And if I’m buying new equipment, it’ll be a second shelf for the oven!
Well okonomiyaki is more calory heavy food than usual i'm eating
What's the octopus pancake? First thought was takoyaki but pancake doesn't make me think of balls. If takoyaki yes sooo good. My first japanese thing i ate on my first trip to japan funny enough. Made it with friends as their daughter loves it and hearing i loved it made it easy. But yeh hard to see how to do with standard kitchen equipment!
hotsauceman1 wrote: Ever since i started watching cooking youtuber channels i have started trying to make more food.
My favroite is Shepards pie with ground beef and like a gak done of beer in it.
Recently i made chicken Kiev, it was time consuming, i didnt dry it like most do, i was too afraid, so i just baked it and it still turned out great.
My favroite is Shepards pie with ground beef and like a gak done of beer in it.
I thought Shepherds Pie was the one with lamb in it. . . and beef was cottage pie?? Though, tbh, I don't really get why there needs to be a distinction, as they are largely the same exact dish, merely swapping a single ingredient (protein source) . . . but of course, the pedantic folks like James May cannot seem to live without those distinctions, so. .
Valkyrie wrote: Are okonomiyaki the cabbage pancakes? I tried those in Hiroshima a few years back and absolutely loved them, would like to try making my own one day.
These are great for using leftover veggies and bits of meat if you have it.
I actually like how varied and versatile a lot of Asian cooking can be, though once you're experienced enough it isn't hard to throw stuff together and call it food.
Valkyrie wrote: Are okonomiyaki the cabbage pancakes? I tried those in Hiroshima a few years back and absolutely loved them, would like to try making my own one day.
It can have all sort of toppiegs so guess gabbage could fit. Not my fav topping material though. But pancake is one description to it and it's particularly popular in hiroshima so could be
My favroite is Shepards pie with ground beef and like a gak done of beer in it.
I thought Shepherds Pie was the one with lamb in it. . . and beef was cottage pie?? Though, tbh, I don't really get why there needs to be a distinction, as they are largely the same exact dish, merely swapping a single ingredient (protein source) . . . but of course, the pedantic folks like James May cannot seem to live without those distinctions, so. .
In america i think(OR atleast around here) its used interchangably.
My favroite is Shepards pie with ground beef and like a gak done of beer in it.
I thought Shepherds Pie was the one with lamb in it. . . and beef was cottage pie?? Though, tbh, I don't really get why there needs to be a distinction, as they are largely the same exact dish, merely swapping a single ingredient (protein source) . . . but of course, the pedantic folks like James May cannot seem to live without those distinctions, so. .
In america i think(OR atleast around here) its used interchangably.
Ooh, I love me some cooking too! Tonight's curry night, got chicken thighs marinading in the fridge right now, ready to go in the oven for an hour and a half when I get home
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: If it’s red meat, definitely use a pie dish, and just top with puff pastry in my opinion.
No need to faff about making puff either, as store bought is plenty good for the job, especially the effort needed to get those flaky layers handmade
You realise that not every store sells such things due to "influencesphere" of kitchen Also us nowadays starting an colonial empire to import the food is also off the table.
I think “shepherds pie” is used as a catch all for all ground/fine diced meat topped with mashed potatoes in America. I’ll admit to having made them with ground turkey. I knew it was fake and phoning it in, but had the parts on hand. Made a decent meal.
I’ve made my own full-puff puff pastry. It’s a bit of a PITA, and takes a long time. Mostly resting in the fridge/freezer, but also a lot of rolling. Would I do it again? Probably, but I like playing in the kitchen. Would it be easier to just grab it from the freezer section of the grocery store? Heck yah! How much better is the from-scratch than store-bought? How much less work is needed?
That last bit of kitchen calculus (taste vs. time) was something that was driven home to me in my teenaged years. At that point my mom went from being a print maker/artist who worked from home back to school to become a lawyer. So where everything used to be from scratch homemade, shortcuts needed to be discovered. What steps could be skipped? For example we all know that store bought pie crust is not as good as scratch. But it might be 90% as good, but take 10% of the work. And the focus is going to be on the filling, so put the effort into there where it will yield maximal results; canned fillings cannot hold a torch to fresh. For special occasions you can pull out all the stops and make it the best, but for most nights, a 90% as-good pie is better then no pie at all.
Gonna do more Wings either tonight or tomorrow, but this time with a different sauce.
Sauce is...
4tbsp Butter
3tbsp Siracha (should be Gochujang, but supermarket doesn’t stock it)
3tbsp Honey
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Mirin.
I suspect it won’t have much of a kick, as there’s not a whole lot of heat going in. If so, I do have Tabasco in the cupboard (everyone should!) so should be able to kick it up a few scovilles.
Or....I may hold off and just do traditional ‘Frank and Butter’ buffalo sauce until I can get hold of Gochujang. There’s a really excellent world foods shop up the town, so I imagine they’ll stock it.
And I might take a notepad with me, as every time I’m in there, I see these amazing ingredients and produce I’ve never cooked with. Reckon making a list will aid me in finding recipes!
Because an old fashioned pottering about in the kitchen with new and unusual ingredient is always an afternoon well spent
Well, I’ve tried the sauce, and put in a decent amount of Tabasco to get some heat.
It tastes really, really good. But it’s also quite thin when using Siracha - not sure if the proper stuff might thicken it any, or if I just need to cook it down more.
The flavour is a good balance between sweet, savoury and just a hint of vinegar. Reckon it will go extremely well with shrimp or other seafood, so gonna try that next.
I’m looking at running a Vampire RPG once lockdown is lifted (it’s a cheap night in!), so hoping I can nail such things as finger food for my players.
If so, I do have Tabasco in the cupboard (everyone should!)
Shouldn't. In terms of proper Mexican/Southwestern cooking, that's just overpriced flavored water, with a hint of something that vaguely resembled a red pepper in its previous life.
On Friday I made some paprika chicken paninis for dinner with some potato wedges, salad and some garlic mayonnaise.
The chicken is flattened to make pan frying easier and if you have a griddle pan even better. After the chicken breast is flattened, you cover it with a dusting of smoked paprika, pepper and salt and let it rest for a while before putting it on the pan with some oil. Stick them on a toasted panini with some mayo and salad and that's a quick meal.
The potatoes are just chopped up maris pipers and seasoned with pepper, salt and chilli and rolled around in oil beforehand so they're crispy. Leave in the oven for 20-25 mins at 220 C and enjoy.
Went with the Air Fryer, as I only have a gas oven.
I daresay if you’ve got a fan assisted or convection oven, it should also work.
Probably gonna try again with slightly cheaper prawns, see if they make any tangible difference. I suspect they might if they’re particularly smaller, as the meat to breading ratio will be reduced, and last night’s one had the right mix of crunch and, well, squish.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Straight forward fry up tonight. Nothing fancy, though premium Sossies and Bacons.
If you can comfortably afford dry cured bacon, it’s a helluva difference, and you don’t get that unappetising white scum in your pan.
It’s also a doddle to make your own bacon. Various websites sell pre-made cure mixes. From there, it’s just trimming your cut of pork and getting your weight ratio accurate. Coat the pork evenly, put it in a ziplock bag. Bung it in the fridge for a week, turning it once a day (ideally around the same time, but not compulsory).
Lovely lovely Bacon ensues.
And for those on a tighter budget, with multiple hungry mouths to feed (or a hungry Roleplay group you want to feed), I can recommend The Wolfe Pit on YouTube.
Though those vids did surprise me at how expensive fresh veg is in the US compared to the U.K.
Been a Professional Cook for almost a decade now, though with my ankles/feet going to gak, and how Covid has effected my line of work. I've been trying to get out of the kitchen.
My big thing is I -love- love Mexican cuisine. But Canada has next to no concept of the cuisine at all, all the local places are bad, and Canadian Taco Bell is something I wouldn't even feed to captured ISIS fighters. I think I have the hang of seasoning and preparing Chilaquies, Enchiladas and of course Tacos. But I have to wonder, what a actual Mexican would think of my cooking, that thought actually makes me incredibly nervous.
I think tonight I am going to whip up some rice for a big, big ole burietto and gorge myself like a daft overfed beast of burden.
Funny you should mention Burrito, been craving a bit of tex-Mex myself.
Reckon I’ll get some stuff in to do Tacos tomorrow, including assembling my own Taco seasoning.
I know Trev’s girls love Tacos, so seems a sensible thing to get used to cooking.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Might also do a refresh of my cooking things this month.
Original flatmate never did quite figure out cleaning a baking sheet before reusing it, so a lot mine a largely ruined.
Could particularly use some Loaf Tins, as I’d like to get back to my baking. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed and the knack for. Or I’ll cop out and just order a bread maker, which certainly saves a lot of time. Also means I can be baking whilst using the oven for other good stuff,
I’d not used it in a long while, but wanted a Stir Fry at the weekend (nice and cheap, and pretty healthy to boot provided you go easy on the oil).
Found it stashed in one of the cupboards. Where a former flatmate left it, without washing it up. And had clearly used a sharp knife when cooking with it, because they’ve cut through the non-stick coating.]
Still had my Stir Fry, just had to use one of the frying pans.
Given no flatmate has ever been able to wash up to my satisfaction, I’m now worried I might be a bit OCD. But I can’t be, as I just use hot soapy water and a dual sponge scourer. I just....make sure they’re clean.
Oh, whichever bugger ruined my cast iron griddle can take a long walk off a short pier. Those things are expensive, and now it’s rusted to buggery!
On griddle pans....how do people like their steaks? I’m a medium rare guy, possibly edging more toward rare than medium. Before the griddle, salt and pepper, then oil the steak not the griddle. And whilst I’m not a purist on it, because a peppercorn sauce is a wonderful thing, I don’t tend to bother with sauces, instead letting the Steak speak for itself.
Serve simply with just cooked Broccoli, oven baked potato and a griddled Beef Tomato. Baked spud should have butter and coleslaw.
I’ll take a Ribeye as preference, but will generally go with what I can afford over any real snobbishness.
Steaks with sauce depends on the steak moreso then the sauce.
pork chops: at onion mustard sauce, lightly breaded and seasoned with tyhme, oregano, rosemary, paprica, salt and pepper.
Served with oven potatos and cabbage salad.
I keep thinking I should get a cast iron skillet, but they are a bit fussy to maintain, and I’m not sure I care that much. Keep hearing good things about them and what they can do for your cooking though..l
Medium rare. Most of the time just S&P, a good steak should not need anything else. If I’m doing fajitas I’ll give it a more complex spice rub. Strip steaks
I don’t do steaks often, so it’s normally an impulse buy when I see them on sale. And has been a while. Apartment living has left me without a grill. Moving back into a house in the near future, so that will change soon.
Yeah, I enjoy Steak so much, I don’t want to have it often enough to risk not properly appreciating it.
But when I do, I like to get it from the Butchers. It is of course more expensive than the supermarket, but as well as the benefit to the local economy, I figure a Treat should feel like it, and be that little bit more extravagant.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Well, my Bread Maker has arrived.
Been to the shop to get the necessaries, and also gonna give the soup marker an outing for a homemade, if automated, dinner tonight.
Leek and Potato soup (maybe with some crispy bacon chopped and added for serving) with fresh Granary bread.
Rather looking forward to it. So best crack on and get it on the go.
Oh, whichever bugger ruined my cast iron griddle can take a long walk off a short pier. Those things are expensive, and now it’s rusted to buggery!
Unless it's been kept in the garden for years or something, it should be easily recoverable. Rub all the rust off with wire wool, till you get to bare metal. Then re-season it - heat it up really hot and rub oil into it. Mind your fingers.
Yeah, it is something than can be restored unless the rust has massively pitted the thing. Plenty of on-line tutorials.
Cast iron is not really hard to maintain. Just hand clean; never dish-washer clean. I repeat, never dish-washer clean. Dry thoroughly and maybe a light coat of oil if you do not plan to use it for a while. Re-season every so often if needed. Also, remember that cast iron does not heat evenly, so pre-heating is a must.
First loaf out. It smells great, passed the tap test (a way to tell if bread fresh out the oven is properly), and is gloriously wonky on the top.
Came out around 20 minutes ago, and on a cooling rack (important, as otherwise a still hot loaf will steam its bottom, resulting in sogginess). Should be able to get stuck in around 9pm.
Where did you pick up the breadmaker out of interest, me and my wife were thinking of getting one. It would be nice to have fresh bread while we are out working on site.
Edit: funnily enough my wife is coeliac as well, does yours have a gluten free function?
Cool tip I can always recommend: roast broccoli instead of boiling, mix with some garlic, chilli flakes and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Goes great with steak, or mix in some soft cheese with pasta.
It does indeed. Got mine on credit from Littlewoods, so paid slightly above market price in favour of instalment payments.
The model does do GF settings, and comes with a useful guide book on want settings to use for which dough.
SD-ZB2502BXC Breadmaker with 27 automatic programmes by Panasonic.
Seemingly a variety of price points, with Amazon being the cheapest at £159.00 according to my Google results.
It’s really easy to use. Load your gubbins into the pan, barring the yeast which goes in a separate bit. Switch it on, select the right programme, press start. Leave it until it beeps.
Oh, and use the right paddle thing, as there’s a special one for Rye Bread, which I might try soon!
It also has a built in timer, so you can load it at night, and set it to be baked when you get up.
Just in general baking principles, I don’t think I’d time it so it cools in the pan, as it can make your crust soggy from the resulting cooling in an enclosed chamber.
Looks easy enough to clean, too. Loaf came out nice and smoothly, so the pan itself mostly just needs a wipe down rather than a more thorough wash, so the non-stick coating should last a good long time. Just, don’t go at it with a scoured!
Made a stab at some fried chicken last night. No fryer so resorted to a pan of oil to make things crispy. Turned out pretty well using a mix of flour, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Double dipped in egg and flour for extra crunch. I could definitely see going the extra mile could result in a nice sticky sauce, if I had thought ahead.
The girlfriend made soft cookies over the weekend and were promptly demolished between the two of us.
That bread maker sounds cool, my mother bought be an electric mixer so I can make cake.
It’s definitely a labour saver, not a time saver. The programme I’m using takes 5 hours. And a good 1.5 hours is “resting” once you loaded in the ingredients.
I suspect this is to allow the flour to absorb whatever liquid you’re using, as the kneading panel only spins the one direction. The rest of the time is pretty standard (kneading, proving, baking, done).
So if you’re expecting to just be able to churn out loaves at a moments notice, that’s not gonna happe!
On to my second loaf today. It really is quick to load up. The most effort is measuring out the flour and the water. The rest is no effort whatsoever.
As for tonight’s dinner? Gonna try Nashville Hot Nuggets in the air fryer. Will get a shop bought dip though, as I don’t yet have empty sauce bottle for appropriate storage. But I will be ordering some, I can assure you that.
I made an absolutely gorgeous pasta dish last night, entirely improvised from a half remembered video I'd seen some weeks before and a variety of leftover/needed using items from the fridge!
I chopped some bacon up small and fried it slowly until it was crispy, then added chopped onion and garlic, fried until it was soft.
Then I put a block of feta in the middle of a baking dish with a lid, surrounded it with dried pasta, covered this with the bacon & onion mix, then covered that with grated cheese, then topped it up with milk to cover the pasta, grind of black pepper and put it in the oven at 180°C. Half an hour later I stirred it, topped it with mozzarella and then put it back in with the lid off for 15 minutes. It was amazing!
Nuggets weren’t anywhere near spicy enough. Positively tame.
Also made soup, so everything I’ve eaten today has been home made. Really quite pleased with myself at that.
Smoothie didn’t work quite as expected. The frozen fruit made it really thick, so had to eat it with a spoon. Consistency was akin to a just thawing Sorbet. Will definitely be doing it again though as it was very tasty.
Tried making saag paneer. The paneer certainly sagged alright. It looked and tasted like seaweed left in the sink all day.
I heard cheese is a good meat alternative, so I am looking for way to work with that without killing my arteries. Might try experimenting a bit more with paneer to see if it works well enough as a curry.
Pretty much every Cajun seafood video on YouTube calls for Old Bay seasoning. But sometimes the packets are different.
Is this the seasoning equivalent of a Hoover, where one companies trademark has become ubiquitous?
If not, is Old Bay really all that? Been sniffing around Amazon today, and found Slap Ya Mama as well as a couple of others.
Given it’s pretty expensive due to being import, don’t want to spend money if what I’m ordering is guff.
As far as I know (which honestly isn’t very far in this case) Old Bay is Old Bay, and not just anything. According to the old dented tin in the pantry, it’s a spice mix with the ingredients of Celery salt, Spices (including red and black pepper) and paprika. There might be other variants out there, and other copy-cat brands, but it’s a classic blend you will find used here.
Sounds like it’s worth getting The Real Thing then.
I’ve certainly always fancied a Crawfish boil. And given American Crayfish are a problem invasive species in our waterways, you’d think they’d be a common occurrence as we introduce an invasive species to the silliness of messing with the planet’s apex predator (no, not Randy Orton). But....seemingly not.
Which is a shame. Reckon a few tactical Crawfish boils during the height of summer would start impacting their numbers.
I’ve certainly always fancied a Crawfish boil. And given American Crayfish are a problem invasive species in our waterways, you’d think they’d be a common occurrence as we introduce an invasive species to the silliness of messing with the planet’s apex predator (no, not Randy Orton). But....seemingly not.
Which is a shame. Reckon a few tactical Crawfish boils during the height of summer would start impacting their numbers.
locals generally tend to not pick up that invasive species are technically often edible...
F.e. american crayfish....
Which is a shame as it is supposedly a lot like lobster.
The weekend for me involved eating my girlfriend's latest bakery treats: a pineapple upside down cake and some peppermint chocolate cupcakes which were both fantastic. I wasn't enthused with the idea of pineapple in a cake but it worked well with the caramel sauce she made and the sponge was nice and moist.
Yesterday we made our first pizzas from scratch. Flour everywhere, but they turned out very well for the first time. My base was a little bit thick for my liking but I was concerned about making the base too thin in the middle. Kept things simple, mozzarella and a few olives were enough. And because I'm proud of it, here are a couple of pictures of the two we made:
Nevelon wrote: Looks good, but maybe a little more edge highlighting?
Only slightly joking. Brush a little oil and maybe sprinkle some parm on the crust to get a nice gloss and some extra flavor.
I'll get that one down on the next model- I mean pizza
Its one of those steps I never bother with. So my crusts are always pale and dusted with flour. But in theory, it’s how good pizza places get that nice golden brown crispy thing going on. Might want to double check my advice with a quick web search before you screw up your next meal.
Curry out of a jar tonight, but I did add extra veggies in the form of an onion and two small bell peppers.
I swear I haven’t eaten this well in years. I’m working on my portion control (such as not scoffing all the curry, so tomorrow is another curry night), and making a conscious effort to eat more fruit and veg.
Next up I’ll get a spice grinder, so I can better make curry from scratch. The recipes don’t call for a lot of salt, but of course it’s pretty prevalent in sauce jars. So for the sake of £35 and a bit more effort, I can further cut down my sodium intake. I mean, I still use salt in my cooking, of course I do. But I’m not using excess salt, nor an excessive amount when eating. And to quote a certain supermarket, every little helps.
And as I had curry tonight, and am having it again tomorrow, my usual Friday night take away might be postponed.
You'll find it very difficult to go back once you've started making your own curry from scratch. I keep a jar or two in my cupboard for lazy nights but I've actually not touched them in months as I prefer making my own, generally as they're healthier, tastier, and cheaper (over time).
Good luck! I recommend buying your spices from Asda or an Asian food shop as you get scalped for tiny amounts of spices in traditional supermarkets.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Curry out of a jar tonight, but I did add extra veggies in the form of an onion and two small bell peppers.
I swear I haven’t eaten this well in years. I’m working on my portion control (such as not scoffing all the curry, so tomorrow is another curry night), and making a conscious effort to eat more fruit and veg.
Next up I’ll get a spice grinder, so I can better make curry from scratch. The recipes don’t call for a lot of salt, but of course it’s pretty prevalent in sauce jars. So for the sake of £35 and a bit more effort, I can further cut down my sodium intake. I mean, I still use salt in my cooking, of course I do. But I’m not using excess salt, nor an excessive amount when eating. And to quote a certain supermarket, every little helps.
And as I had curry tonight, and am having it again tomorrow, my usual Friday night take away might be postponed.
Oh man, I love me a scratch made katsu curry. Had a ramen place with the best curry rice I ever tasted at the old location of my work, and when we were moving I asked the lady who ran the place (who I had probably spent hours talking to at that point, it was a little hole in the wall place) if I could have the recipe, and it is one of the best things I know how to make.
Saute a diced onion, 1tbsp minced garlic and diced carrots in butter in your soup pot and fry diced potatoes and mushrooms in a frypan alongside, once they're caramelized add flour to make an oniony roux, add miso paste and 3 cups of water, 1tbsp honey, 1tbsp curry powder, 1tsp garam masala, 2tbsp curry powder. Mix in the potatoes once they're good and crispy and pour it over rice and maybe some panko fried meat or tofu if you're feeling fancy. it is so so good.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Next up I’ll get a spice grinder, so I can better make curry from scratch. The recipes don’t call for a lot of salt, but of course it’s pretty prevalent in sauce jars. So for the sake of £35 and a bit more effort, I can further cut down my sodium intake. I mean, I still use salt in my cooking, of course I do. But I’m not using excess salt, nor an excessive amount when eating. And to quote a certain supermarket, every little helps.
Salt is a necessary nutrient for survival. But packaged and processed food almost always adds too much salt to everything, which we all know comes with it's own health problems. Which is why cooking from fresh is more healthy than using prepackaged and processed foods. Now if only we all had the TIME for it...
So I'm off to a Covid-legal BBQ with a couple of friends on Saturday, hoping to impress with my cooking skills. Looking through my trusty Oh Cook! book I'm doing sticky buffalo wings with a honey mustard marinade. Anyone know anything else I could put together to really impress? I'm pretty proud of my cooking abilities so want to show off a bit.
Valkyrie wrote: So I'm off to a Covid-legal BBQ with a couple of friends on Saturday, hoping to impress with my cooking skills. Looking through my trusty Oh Cook! book I'm doing sticky buffalo wings with a honey mustard marinade. Anyone know anything else I could put together to really impress? I'm pretty proud of my cooking abilities so want to show off a bit.
If you have the time for it, do a google for Terry Crews' Mac and Cheese (Mac and Jeezy) . . . Then go as crazy as you please with cheese, as my family absolutely loved the recipe straight up the first time, but as a "base" we liked it more when we added our own variety of cheeses.
New cuisine for me. Feta cheese with olive oil, seasonings and honey surrounded by cherry tomatoes cooked in oven. Served with pita bread and added some more tomatoes and salad.
Scary amount of calories but guess i can afford it. Scale showed today 117.1 which is new record since 18.1(131.8 then).
Valkyrie wrote: So I'm off to a Covid-legal BBQ with a couple of friends on Saturday, hoping to impress with my cooking skills. Looking through my trusty Oh Cook! book I'm doing sticky buffalo wings with a honey mustard marinade. Anyone know anything else I could put together to really impress? I'm pretty proud of my cooking abilities so want to show off a bit.
If you have the time for it, do a google for Terry Crews' Mac and Cheese (Mac and Jeezy) . . . Then go as crazy as you please with cheese, as my family absolutely loved the recipe straight up the first time, but as a "base" we liked it more when we added our own variety of cheeses.
Just watched the video. Certainly seems a lot easier than farting around with the bechamel. Might give that a go for one of my RPG sessions.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
tneva82 wrote: New cuisine for me. Feta cheese with olive oil, seasonings and honey surrounded by cherry tomatoes cooked in oven. Served with pita bread and added some more tomatoes and salad.
Scary amount of calories but guess i can afford it. Scale showed today 117.1 which is new record since 18.1(131.8 then).
I’m guessing it’s the Feta that’s packing the calories? Looks like a pretty decent meal!
Automatically Appended Next Post: In terms of Salad, I don’t think you can whack a Panzella type thing.
Jamie Oliver’s recipe is a good starting point, though I think I’d leave out the anchovies. Certainly never used them in the one I make.
The red vinegar and capers give it a beautiful taste, especially if your tomatoes are sweet. I also add in a diced cucumber for crunch, which I don’t bother peeling because I like the skin, just make sure it’s well washed.
Wor lass had a go on the bread machine we bought (or brood machine as it's apparently called in Dutch...) worked like a treat. Considering the price of GF bread and that you can't get a damn thing on NHS England prescription it's a game changer.
When I went to uni at Leicester, I got some proper experience in making curries and because there's so many shops about it was fairly cheap too. Spice grinder or a simple pestle and mortar is definitely the way to go. As well as cooking down the spices first in the pan before adding anything else. Also it turned out I'd been cooking rice wrong the whole time too. Leaving it to rest after cooking makes the world of difference.
Forgot to get instant Mash on my shop today, so gonna nip back. Got some Chicken Kiev’s in the freezer from a proper butcher, so need to get some peas and mash to go with them.
I know some might frown at instant mash, but for someone living on their own, Smash is pretty great. Just need to add real butter and a splodge of full milk or cream to get something perfectly edible. And it keeps a long time, which is useful in itself.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, can anyone recommend a recipe/method for doing baby back ribs in the oven?
I’ve been iffy on ribs due to poor quality Spare Ribs when I was a kid. The sauce always tasted amazing, but the meat was always tough and gristly.
Given I’ve overcome a similar prejudice to Chicken Wings, I reckon Ribs are the next up.
One assumption, I’ll get the ribs themselves from a reputable Butcher, so can have them trimmed pretty much however.
Also accepting sauce recipes, but as ever I won’t insist on your family recipe. That somehow feels disrespectful to me.
Think lt's different. Have some same ingredients i think but there's separate kimchi recipe in book i was following. Also ate kimchi in japan and that i liked.
One issue of course is i have no measuring standard by somebody who knows how to do this might be just me screwing up something.
Well not every experiment can be success. Have been recently trying plenty of stuff i have literally never eaten in my 38 years of life
Need to come up with new toppings for udons. Meat-mushroom-tofu is good but variety is spice of life
The red vinegar and capers give it a beautiful taste, especially if your tomatoes are sweet. I also add in a diced cucumber for crunch, which I don’t bother peeling because I like the skin, just make sure it’s well washed.
You've done right! You don't put anchovies in the panzanella and the original recipe includes cucumber for that exact reason.
Just remember that the base tastes of the dish are the tomatoes and the basil, and that it need to soak before being eaten (it's a dish used to consume the stale bread).
And yeah. Whilst I’m perfectly happy to scoff it as soon as it’s prepared, if the flavours are allowed to develop its much tastier.
I’ve made it a few time for Pot Luck type things, and it’s always among the first things to go.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Though now you mention tomatoes, I must see if the local greengrocers has any. The ones in supermarkets have hardly any taste, especially compared to the ones my Grandad used to grow. Those had an almost herby scent and flavour.
Tonight was sausage stuffed hot peppers, cooked in tomato sauce and covered with mozzarella. These freeze nicely so I normally make a few dozen whenever I find banana peppers of the right size.
Made spicey chicken pasta today. Some pasta, chicken, bell peppers, french cream, red onion, bits of this and that...and recipe called for jalapeno chili.
Well local store had ran out of individual jalapeno, wasn't planning using more in near future, took habanero.
Well let's just say I got spicey food for sure! No complains about lack of spicyness!
Also hit on bit of a cooking accident. Had sliced the chili, put it away. Wash hands. Had to go shop to get ingredient(chicken soap) I had forgotten. Washed hands again. Continue. While cooking the chicken pieces wiped sweat from forehead top of my left eye...
...big mistake. I'm instantly walking around in pain with forehead BUUUUURRNNIIIIING and my left eye flat out shut down incapable of opening up. Flat out no matter how hard I tried it stayed shut burning like hell. Right eye opened up barely giving me SOME sight. What a burn!
Lesson learned: Wear a glove or have something oil based to wash hand after cutting chili(particularly habanero).
Well. At least got good meal out of this pain. Next time with habanero going to be more carefull.
Been having some trouble finding seitan and wheat gluten. Would be nice to have a meat substitute with a firmer texture for once.
Is there some usual supermarket aisle where they might be stored? I remember spending hours looking for vanilla since it was tucked away in the spice aisle.
Today, not so much cooking but the assembly of a tasty and light dinner, because it is stupid hot at the moment.
Ciabatta, Olive Oil with Balsamic Vinegar Dip and a selection of Salami type meats.
It’s not terribly healthy due to the processed meats, but it’s a once every so often treat which takes no time at all to get setup.
Haha. The Olive Garden combo? No shame putting something like together to cut cooking time. I’ve used frozen samosas and tortellini as backups when my dinner “experiments,” didn’t work out so well.
Today, not so much cooking but the assembly of a tasty and light dinner, because it is stupid hot at the moment.
Ciabatta, Olive Oil with Balsamic Vinegar Dip and a selection of Salami type meats.
It’s not terribly healthy due to the processed meats, but it’s a once every so often treat which takes no time at all to get setup.
That's a staple in our household as well for picnics or a light lunch if we're going to have a heavy dinner. If you want to make it healthier we usually slice up a few persian cucumbers and tomatoes to go with it and sometimes a handful of pistachios. If you've got any Thyme growing in the garden a spring or two of leaves adds a nice bit of flavor to the cucumber and the oil.
Chicken Madras underway tonight. Pre-ground spices for now, but must get a spice grinder sometime so I can do it all proper.
It turned out really well! Not quite restaurant quality, but far better than a jarred sauce. Will definitely be making it again, as it was pretty simple.
Onion, three garlic cloves, thumb of ginger and three chillis (I used green Birdseye) in a blender to a rough paste.
Fry it off for a bit until nice and softened, then bung in half teaspoon coriander powder, teaspoon each of Cumin and Turmeric, two teaspoons hot chilli. Toast it a couple of minutes, then in with four diced chicken breasts.
Get some colour on the chicken, before adding a decent pinch of salt and 400g tin of chopped tomatoes. Then let it simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes. It should be covered, but my sauce was a bit thin, to took the lid off for the last 15 minutes.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Kind of hoping there’s a Texan reading this….as I’m looking for a proper proper proper Chilli recipe.
Have crockpot, want to cook chilli. Possibly to go on Chilli Cheese Dogs….
I live in Texas, but I was born in Michigan, so I may be the best person to answer this. My first choice for chili on a hot dog would be a good Michigan-style coney sauce made from ground/minced beef heart.
If you just want chili for eating on its own, ground beef or any cheap cut of beef for stewing will work. And now you'll get as many different opinions as there are people in Texas. My personal preference with chili is stew meat, diced tomatoes, diced onions, and a good chili powder or chili seasoning mix. Proportions all to taste and personal preference. Good luck!
Shouldn't have looked at the thread! Having started VLC diet again no real food for still about 2 weeks. Looks yummy.
Planning to do simple sausage soup once this is over. Very common(at least in my youth) food in Finland(funnily enough read news article recently how parents these days are so out of touch of what kids like most at school thinking they are roughly same as in their youth and meat features heavily. In fact most of parents favourites generally don't appear and over half the favourite foods for school kids these days don't even include meat...So I don't make any claim about how common sausage soup is THESE days in Finland But it's solid traditional food for my generation ;-) )
Note. This is google translation over which I went over and checked it makes sense(including googling up english ingredient terms to verify they look correct)
Nothing super special Also this is new recipe for me that I found. I haven't done this soup myself ever actually. Only eaten done by others. I only got more creative with cookings this year and so far only meat, chicken and fish soup(so many foods to cook! And it's really hard to make servings for 1 so basically I'm doing about 1-2 meals per week myself. One that shares multiple days, couple VLCD days so no meal needed)
Ingredients
8 solid potatoes
1 parsnip
piece of celery root
4 carrots
1 onion
600 g of sausage
1 liter of broth
1 liter of water
3 bay leaves
10 pieces of whole black pepper
oil for frying
salt
black pepper
pot of fresh parsley
Recipe
Servings: 6
1. Peel and chop the potatoes, parsnips, celery root, carrots and onion. Brown all of above in a large saucepan and then add the broth and water.
2. Season with bay leaves and whole black pepper. Let it boil for about 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the sausage and cut into cubes. Fry in a pan to give the sausage a color and then add it to the soup.
3. Let it boil and check the ripeness of the potatoes. Season as needed. Chop over the finished soup plenty of parsley.
Did another Madras this evening. Used a Scotch Bonnet, and it was just the right level of heat. A distinct kick, but not overwhelming the other flavours.
What I love about National Dishes and Traditional Dishes is their near universal origin as peasant food - the poorest in a given region making something as tasty as possible with as little as possible.
Now don’t get me wrong. A prime cut is good in its own way. But honest hearty folky food simply cannot be beaten.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Of course the downside is that originating that way means they tend to be calorie dense, as they were feeding people doing labour jobs. If you’ve a more sedentary modern life (oh hai!) you need to make them a more occasional treat if you’re watching your calories.
What I love about National Dishes and Traditional Dishes is their near universal origin as peasant food - the poorest in a given region making something as tasty as possible with as little as possible.
Now don’t get me wrong. A prime cut is good in its own way. But honest hearty folky food simply cannot be beaten.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Of course the downside is that originating that way means they tend to be calorie dense, as they were feeding people doing labour jobs. If you’ve a more sedentary modern life (oh hai!) you need to make them a more occasional treat if you’re watching your calories.
Not sure can it be called national dish(it comes originally from sweden actually) but another common quick meal in finland: Fried potatoes, onions, sausage mixed and ketchup in.
At least my generations knows it well Super common when you don't have time to do anything fancy.
Eggs and pickles also common additions to the food. Everything small cubes.
I learned lately that eggs might be considered vegetarian if they are unfertilized. This will help expand the cooking repertoire considerably, because tempeh is proving to be a rather dreadful replacement.
Is there any way of telling at the grocery store whether or not eggs have been fertilized?
I’m thinking it might prove a simple, healthy and well tasty lunch. Not to mention cheap.
Any ideas or recommendations?
I tried cooking those as an experiment a couple of times. No definitive recipes here, but it goes really well if you cook it with butter rather than oil. If you feel so bold as to try it for a dinner side, it goes really well with BBQ. There’s a restaurant up here that serves ribs with garlic mashed potatoes and garlic broccoli. It’s a match made in heaven.
SkavenLord wrote: I learned lately that eggs might be considered vegetarian if they are unfertilized. This will help expand the cooking repertoire considerably, because tempeh is proving to be a rather dreadful replacement.
Is there any way of telling at the grocery store whether or not eggs have been fertilized?
By and large, they're in the supermarket instead of being hatched to grow chickens.
No, I'm serious. In egg farms the hens don't have any access to roosters unless they are specifically being bred. And not all egg farms breed their own hens.
Starting to fall into a weekly dinner pattern, and it’s pretty nice.
Curry twice (made from scratch)
Pasta twice (out of a packet. Probably could make from scratch, but can’t be bothered)
Burgers
Chilli and Rice
Fish Cakes and Chips (probably the “naughtiest” meal due to the chips).
Lunches tend to be a bowl of cereal, or bread with eggs some way. All tying into my exercise and gym related health kick. Not looking to get buff or marathon fit, just being more conscious and that.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Starting to fall into a weekly dinner pattern, and it’s pretty nice.
Curry twice (made from scratch)
Pasta twice (out of a packet. Probably could make from scratch, but can’t be bothered)
Burgers
Chilli and Rice
Fish Cakes and Chips (probably the “naughtiest” meal due to the chips).
Lunches tend to be a bowl of cereal, or bread with eggs some way. All tying into my exercise and gym related health kick. Not looking to get buff or marathon fit, just being more conscious and that.
Nice to have a pattern. It seems a lot of the kinds of food you mentioned can be prepared in different ways. Hope you’re getting that variety in there!
Glad to see I’m not the only one who likes rice paired with their chili too. Do you prepare the rice as a side dish, or do you put them both together in a bowl?
But I love this sort of video. Sadly all too few people just sort of learn how to home cook in this age of ready meals and take out.
Now there’s no snobbery here about ready meals and take out. You eat what you want on the budget you find acceptable. Your eating habits are none of my business.
But this rather irregular series is golden. It shows easy, cost effective, but not necessarily traditionally healthy ways to feed your family on a budget, with a minimum of skill and kitchen equipment.
When the recipes and ingredients are this accessible, I can only hope it provides support and encouragement to those who don’t have the easiest time making the monthly ends meat.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Did another Madras this evening. Used a Scotch Bonnet, and it was just the right level of heat. A distinct kick, but not overwhelming the other flavours.
If you love a madras then this is the one I've been making for about 25 years. My first ever cooking book and I haven't found a madras that beats it yet (though I've found a few Indonesian rendang that come close). Strong coriander taste and you can adjust the heat level with more or less birds eye chillies. A lot of "Britishised" (? I'm going with that word!) curry houses make every curry a runny gloop of sauce and meat. This one is like a fairly dry stew. Top tip: cook it then freeze it for 2 days. Heaven knows why, but the flavour is amazing after it's been frozen.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MSkYFQQ_bXm_2066WRSlN3VmYm28cqdT/view?usp=sharing It's from the book "Curries" by Manisha Kanani and it ought to be renamed "Curries for idiots", because it's a great gateway into south Asian cooking (and everyone should buy it for the jalfrezi recipe alone - so easy and so satisfying!).
Also, when you get a spice grinder, have a crack at the Hairy Bikers Tikka Masala. When you get the hang of making your own masala mixes this is a really rewarding dish.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MOzX8DzjQaeMO5diM-OWIV1geggUidey/view?usp=sharing In fact, just grab the Hairy Bikers Great Curries book - they don't pretend to be authentic but they manage to get a good variety of recipes without the need for too many hard to get ingredients. The kebab recipes are lush.
The Tikka looks like a lot of ingredients, but if you're serious about cooking then you should look at the list and laugh - a man's spice rack is his castle (or something like that).
Hey, I might enjoy my food, like cooking it from scratch, with kitchen gadgets, have a beard and have more than enough hair for a man bun, but Hipster I am not, for none of it is done in irony!
Thank you for the links, I shall check it out!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, beef curry! How unexpected! Like, genuinely.
No I get it, that's understandable. I've no idea of the background of the chef who wrote it. The problem we have in our neck of the woods is that "curry" is so often correlated to Hindu when the south Asian diet is spread across a wide variety of cultures. They're not necessarily eating the same stuff in Islamabad as they are in Dhaka.
For the first time ever, I had rabbit today. Bought one at the store, made my own bit of stuffing for it, and cooked it in a dutch oven on a bed of potatoes and carrots.
And it just tasted like chicken. And cost about five times what a chicken would have cost. Oh well, at least I tried it.
When the recipes and ingredients are this accessible, I can only hope it provides support and encouragement to those who don’t have the easiest time making the monthly ends meat.
Speaking of accessible ingredients and cooking steps, I thought I'd share a new family favorite that fits here. Now, the "recipe" itself comes from "Feed Zone" which is a cookbook focused squarely on endurance sport athletes, so perhaps the source is rather bougie, but this particular meal is quite simplistic, and yet very very good.
If doing the original recipe as intended "for 2" :
8 oz. Angel hair pasta
8 oz bacon
2 ears of Sweet corn
1 can diced tomatoes
basil leaves cut into strips for flavor (honestly, I've always forgotten this step)
Carefully cut the kernels off of the ears of corn
Cook the bacon, then put in a paper towel lined bowl (or a strainer over a collection cup, if you collect bacon grease religiously)
With that same pan start cooking the corn kernels, I usually just go long enough to start getting a bit of sear to it.
Cook up the angel hair pasta, drain and put into a large mixing bowl.
Dump the corn, the bacon, and the diced tomatoes in with the pasta and mix it up.
Serve it up, and top with the basil leaves (if you want to, i dont care, as I said above, I forget alot)
It is a pretty tasty, quick and easy to make type meal, and most of the ingredients aren't special, and aren't very expensive. I mean, the most spendy thing there is the bacon. One of the things we have found also is, if its available near you "peppered" bacon ads just a bit extra oomph to the flavor profile without having to do much extra thinking.
1kg Oxtail, dusted in lour and seared before going in the crock pot.
500ml Guinness Original (bottle not can)
500ml Beef Stock.
Carrots, celery, spuds and onions to taste. Roughly chopped.
1 tin chopped tomatoes.
8 hours on high heat. Still a little over two hours to go, but just had a taste and it’s very good! So much beefy flavour, with the veg complimenting nicely.
I used a splash or two to deglaze the frying i seared the Oxtail in, and I can tell you it smelled amazing. All that flavour of course went into the stew.
It’s a very solid winter warmer. Plus Oxtail is a fairly cheap cut of meat. Not as cheap as it used to be (thanks, Hipsters. Thipsters) but still cheap enough. Being a tail, and bone in, it does of course need to be stewed to make the most of the collagen and marrow.
Worth tracking down, and definitely worth heading to a decent Butcher to get it. Not only are they more likely to have it, but you’ve a greater chance of getting roughly even sized pieces.
Stuff I got was a wonky mix, but it’s all flavour at the end of the day!
Automatically Appended Next Post: First bowl devoured. It’s very good! Kind of wish I’d added some herbs, just to brighten the flavour, and will use some Worcestershire or Henderson’s in my next bowl. It’s a very unctuous dish due to all the tasty bits of the beef, so the acidity should cut through it just enough to balance things.
Fight them foods snobs Doc with their Unicorn hearts pan fried in Angel tears nonsense, the purpose of food is a) be yummy to you b) not dying, not belittling others for having better things to do than pass off whatever you googled as worthwhile know-wots
I do almost all of the cooking in my house and I've started to struggle with coming up with different things to try. It's too easy to fall back on the same simple standards, but I want to try new things!
Sadly the local grocery stores don't exactly have a lot of variety.
So it's a chicken stir fry day. I have chicken, vegetables, and rice, after all.
I count myself lucky that I live metres away from my town’s major supermarket. It’s helpful, as if I’m half way through something and find I’ve forgotten an ingredient, spice or herb, it’s quick enough I can nip out and get what I need.
Given how rich the Oxtail Stew is, I’m now considering adding a pinch of two of dried coriander. Give it that herby sweetness.
Best thing about Stews is that provided you know your basics, they’re really really hard to mess up!
And remember. Whether it’s wine, beer or a spirit? If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it. And not knocking wine as a whole, it’s something I don’t enjoy drinking, hence I tend to stick to beefy stews, where a good ale or stout works just as nicely - though you do need to add the acidity wine has that beer typically lacks.
krijthebold wrote: I do almost all of the cooking in my house and I've started to struggle with coming up with different things to try. It's too easy to fall back on the same simple standards, but I want to try new things!
Sadly the local grocery stores don't exactly have a lot of variety.
Im in a similar boat. Although I do own about a dozen cookbooks of various varieties (meaning some are aimed at families, some are athletics specific diets, there's a paleo cookbook around there, some celebrity chef books, even a few meatless cookbooks that have some, frankly, amazing recipes in them)
And at the moment, the variety at our grocers is more due to the fact that the major N-S highway has been shut down due to flooding, and ALL mountain passes in the state have shut down due to snow, means we aren't getting the resupply that the area normally sees.
Given how rich the Oxtail Stew is, I’m now considering adding a pinch of two of dried coriander. Give it that herby sweetness.
I've done Oxtail Stew slow cooked with a red Thai chili paste in the past and really enjoyed it. Never considered using dried coriander though, that could be a lot of fun.
The smell of ground up coriander seeds has always made it one of my favorite spices both dried and freshly ground with a mortar and pestle. I'll have to give them a try with dumplings too
krijthebold wrote: I do almost all of the cooking in my house and I've started to struggle with coming up with different things to try. It's too easy to fall back on the same simple standards, but I want to try new things!
Sadly the local grocery stores don't exactly have a lot of variety.
Im in a similar boat. Although I do own about a dozen cookbooks of various varieties (meaning some are aimed at families, some are athletics specific diets, there's a paleo cookbook around there, some celebrity chef books, even a few meatless cookbooks that have some, frankly, amazing recipes in them)
And at the moment, the variety at our grocers is more due to the fact that the major N-S highway has been shut down due to flooding, and ALL mountain passes in the state have shut down due to snow, means we aren't getting the resupply that the area normally sees.
Oh, I love collecting cookbooks. I've got all sorts too, including a couple of local ones put out by by like... village firefighters, back in the 80's, and so on.
Those ones can sometimes be the most useful, because I can at least get ahold of the ingredients, basic as they are.
No mountain passes here, just remote and at the end of the supply chains.
This was taken basically verbatim, directly from a cookbook I own (its actually mentioned in the BS part of the recipe) and I'll say that it has impressed many people over the years cooking it.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I’m needing to eat more veggies. Not just my five a day, but to increase my intake regardless.
Not only can they be well tasty, they’re often simple to prepare, making them useful snacks.
So far I’m looking at stir fried garlic broccoli (easy peasy, if a bit high in sodium), and I’m interested to hear of others.
Automatically Appended Next Post: But no Cauliflower! I’m not eating, preparing or touching Satan’s Haemorrhoids for you or anybody!
Soup.
Vegie soup.
Butter, cabbage, carrot, onion, potato all cut down what ever, in it, slightly stir, water boullion. boil , maybee throw sausage in but then stop boiling and let it simmer for 10 mins. voila vegetable soup.
And if you got leftover soup, mix it, new thing all together.
MDG one great tip for broccoli if you cut it into smaller trees, stick it under the grill with garlic, olive oil and a few chilli flakes it's an absolute beaut.
In fact roasting veggies in general is the way to go.
Another quick one is stuffed peppers - I like anchovies, feta cheese and olives with mine with some rice but there's plenty of options.
I’ve never tried Stuff Peppers. If I’m honest, I like my bell peppers (for clarity!) chopped and raw. A satisfying crunch and very slightly sweet, in a kind of savoury way.
Also a staple of my stir fry’s, as I do tend to like my vegetables hot, rather than cooked.
Roast Veg is an exception to that of course, as it totally changes their flavour profile.
I’m not entirely sure the pickled veggies contain the same the goodies fresh veggies do, but I do know the fermentation gribblies are beneficial and indeed desirable!
What do we do when the weather is a bit rubbish, and we’re feeling a little low?
That’s right. We make Barbecue Pulled Pork. Nothing too fancy sauce wise as I’m using shop bought. Will start it after work, as it’s gonna be a 12 hour job in the Slow Cooker.
Back to the veggies, I finally invested in a proper steamer. Just the simple kind consisting of stackable pans but the taste compared to boiling the veg is definitely noticeable.
Would also recommend a soup maker. If you have leftover veg just chuck it in the pot with veg stock and an onion, and 20 mins later you get piping hot soup ready to eat.
I’m hopefully, moving house soon. To a nice place in Folkestone down on the coast, with a rather fetching back garden.
Private garden of course means….offset smoker barbecue. In due course. It’s not an immediate purchase due to cost, but it is going to happen provided my references on the new place check out (no reason to believe they won’t, but I’m not one to count chickens).
I am unreasonably excited by this development. I’ve never had a garden of my own like. And I’ve a shake and bake pod of friends ready to go to help me eat the deliciousness i create. And of course I’ll invite neighbours to make up for the delightful smells.
I will of course start off quite basic. Nothing fancy, break myself in easily with simple recipes and techniques before pushing the basics once I’ve got them down.
Congratulations MDG! A garden and a smoker are both really nice to have.
My wife and I started growing basil last year and using it to make pizza with; fresh makes all the difference. Consider mint as well, with the caveat that it expands aggressively so needs to be kept isolated.
You absolutely cannot beat completely fresh herbs.
Many many many many moons ago, in my first childhood home we had a little Mint patch. Mumsie would often send me toddling off to pick some to go with the boiled spuds.
The garden itself is Low Maintenance, so no lawn etc. But once I’m settled I should be able to observe where the sun lands each day, and potentially plant accordingly.
catbarf wrote: Consider mint as well, with the caveat that it expands aggressively so needs to be kept isolated.
Mint is the absolute WORST to grow. . . JFC, every damn spring I have to rip out 3-4 newly sprung mint plants. So yeah, I concur it spreads aggressively. So pay attention, or youll hate your minty fresh garden
catbarf wrote: Consider mint as well, with the caveat that it expands aggressively so needs to be kept isolated.
Mint is the absolute WORST to grow. . . JFC, every damn spring I have to rip out 3-4 newly sprung mint plants. So yeah, I concur it spreads aggressively. So pay attention, or youll hate your minty fresh garden
This is why you should plant mint in a planter isolated from the ground. Otherwise it will spread as far as it can find water and appropriate sunlight.
Ensis Ferrae wrote:Mint is the absolute WORST to grow. . . JFC, every damn spring I have to rip out 3-4 newly sprung mint plants. So yeah, I concur it spreads aggressively. So pay attention, or youll hate your minty fresh garden
Vulcan wrote:This is why you should plant mint in a planter isolated from the ground. Otherwise it will spread as far as it can find water and appropriate sunlight.
I have the lower half of a whiskey barrel, filled with dirt, serving as a planter. Keeps the plant isolated but still big enough to support a pretty good volume of mint; no maintenance required besides the usual pruning.
This is why you should plant mint in a planter isolated from the ground. Otherwise it will spread as far as it can find water and appropriate sunlight.
Lol, we did do that. . 2 above ground planter boxes. . . Mint was intentionally planted in one of them. It took over the other one too.
Of course, I was opposed to the planting in the first place, because growing up, I lived across the highway from an industrial/professional sized mint farm, and holy cow the smell around certain times of year!!!
I’d definitely be down for planting fresh herbs. Not too difficult to look after, and most U.K. supermarkets sell potted fresh herb plants, so in theory it will just be popping them into a series of planters.
Plus I have a dehydrator, so I could even preserve my own herbs come Autumn/Winter. I also do Cross Stitch as a hobby, and I figure using off cuts/remnants of Aida Fabric will stop the leaves blowing around, whilst still allowing the air to circulate.
I do need to research grills. I honestly do not know my arse from my elbow, but I strongly suspect that You Get What You Pay For will prove somewhat elastic. Dirt cheap bad of course, but £3k+ possibly overkill.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I’d definitely be down for planting fresh herbs. Not too difficult to look after, and most U.K. supermarkets sell potted fresh herb plants, so in theory it will just be popping them into a series of planters.
Plus I have a dehydrator, so I could even preserve my own herbs come Autumn/Winter. I also do Cross Stitch as a hobby, and I figure using off cuts/remnants of Aida Fabric will stop the leaves blowing around, whilst still allowing the air to circulate.
I do need to research grills. I honestly do not know my arse from my elbow, but I strongly suspect that You Get What You Pay For will prove somewhat elastic. Dirt cheap bad of course, but £3k+ possibly overkill.
Lot of options with grills.
Gas/propane are quick and easy. No muss with getting the coals just right, more stable temps, lot of other nice features. But more traditional charcoal grills get more flavor, you can burn assorted woods, some have smoke boxes. More work, but better results.
Really what you are looking for. You just want to put some grill marks on some meat at the end of a workday? Gas. But if you really want to push things, and get results, go old school.
I’m lazy, and went with gas. But keep thinking about getting a smoker. Couple friends have them, and put out amazing things.
I’m keen on something I need to learn, because learning is cool. I’m kind of looking at dual fuel ones, so those with a wood hip/charcoal grill and a gas grill. Options are good, and there’s nowt wrong with a gas grill for shorter cooking where I just want to be outside and not stuck in a hot kitchen on a hot day. The wood/charcoal is for when I have a better handle on the theory.
Did first go at deep frying today doing kara-age though since I didn't have sake the recipe called for used beer instead. Let's call it japanese deep fried chicken finnish style Didn't manage to cause fire which is success already in my book ;-) And taste wasn't that bad either so going to do this again one of these days.
I'd love to work on my garden. If only there weren't about two foot of snow still on top of it. *sigh*
I've been in slow cooker mode cooking wise. I've been sick a lot and it's nice to just get a bunch of meals prepped so I don't have to do much when I'm tired in the evening!
I’m gonna have friends over once I’ve moved, and I’ll be doing Barbecue Pulled Pork in my slow cooker. Because it’s minimum effort and maximum flavour!