Today I Made:

[philsov]

I've recently come to the idea that cooking (for yourself/your family) isn't about following recipes or making something completely new. It's being able to use what you have and the ideas you get from the recipe to make whatever is most convenient, appealing and nutritious.

But don't you get what you have by buying specific ingredients for recipes in the first place?

Anyways, after some brief online research I came to the thought that Lima Beans are probably the best Fava bean substitute from my current array of bean selection, so I set out for that Ful Medames things from previous. I made a smallish batch -- 8 oz dry lima beans and 2 oz kidney beans. Cooked em for a bit with onion/garlic, smashed em up good once they were soft (scooping out some wholes beforehand, which re-entered the fold), threw in some lemon juice, olive oil, and parsley, and then boiled off a little excess water. The taste is surprising light thanks to the lemon, but the appearance is appalling and I have no clue at how its supposed to taste, but I like whatever I just made all the same.

[roband]

Anyone got any ideas how long some pesto+breadcrumb mix will last, in the fridge?

edit: I might just add what's left to the curry I cook tomorrow - it always ends up a bit runnier than I like (for which the breadcrumbs will help?) and spinach in curry is nothing new.

Also, I just prepped the sauce and cooked the spices for the curry, as I plan to slow cook it all day tomorrow - it smells AMAZING

[Ulc]

Together with my roommate, I yesterday started on a garlic soup that'll be served as first course (with parmasan chunks in it) today

Step 1: Take four garlics, 4 onions and 4 bellpeppers and clean them, add 500 g. of butter and cover with foil and put in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees celcius

Step 2: Transfer to a bit pot and add highly concentrated chicken stock, a little chilli, pepper and salt and 300ml of water, then blend it heavily.

Step 3: Add fresh thyme, 1 L of cream, then let it simmer for a couple of hours, cool down and save it for 12+ hours, then heat it back up

Step 4: Just before serving, add 200ml of Nolly prat. Transfer to bowls where small chunks of parmasan have been spread over the bottom already, and immediately serve

Spoiler:

[roband]

Is that 4 cloves of garlic or 4 entire bulbs?

[Ulc]

Is that 4 cloves of garlic or 4 entire bulbs?

Cloves? Garlic deserves being added in more serious amounts!

It is of course four entire bulbs, and it's delicious!

When making this soup one has to reach a certain state of mind, where you realize that

a) Butter is a liquid
b) Add more garlic

[roband]

Yeah, when I looked back and realised the recipe called for a LITRE(?!?) of cream, I realised it must be 4 bulbs

[dubsola]

Not to mention all that butter

[roband]

I made brownies recently and the recipe called for 450g of butter.
Fortunately, they turned out AMAZING.

[Ulc]

Not to mention all that butter

Yeah, whenever we make that recipe, a Dietitian somewhere wakes up screaming from a nightmare and doesn't know why.

[Giant Speck]

Not to mention all that butter

Yeah, whenever we make that recipe, a Dietitian somewhere wakes up screaming from a nightmare and doesn't know why.

All the while, Paula Deen is enjoying a wet dream.

[ahammel]

I made risotto for the first time. It was delicious, and not nearly as difficult as its reputation. Basically just a lot of stirring and paying attention. I managed to fry smoked tofu at the same time without burning anything, so the constant stirring is apparently not strictly necessary.

[roband]

Yesterday, curry. Recipe in the spoiler:

Spoiler:

Melt 4 tbsp of butter in a saucepan.
'Blend' one onion in a food processor, so it's practically a paste, and add to the melted butter.
Add two inches of peeled and chopped ginger, 3 teaspoons turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground cumin powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander powder, 3 teaspoons paprika and 2 tablespoons garam masala.
Fry for a minute or two, then add about 250ml water and 1 teaspoon salt.
Simmer for a few minutes then add 6 cloves of garlic, crushed, and 3 green chillies, with just the stalks removed.
Finish with 1 can chopped tomatoes and one fresh tomato chopped into whatever sized bits you want in the final meal.

I then slow cooked all of this for 8 hours or so and served with boiled white rice and chapatis.

Also, the chapatis were home made. So easy, so tasty.

And the leftovers will taste EVER BETTER!

[roband]

Just made carbonara for the first time - with the leftover salmon I mentioned a few days ago.

Oh dear. I'd never had carbonara before, as I don't like cream, but I found a recipe with just egg in it. Excellent!

Egg and fish is not something I enjoy the taste of, apparently. All that food wasted This is why I should get a dog...

[poxic]

I'm home from work much earlier than usual, so I'm a bit bored. I'm also trying to rein in assorted bad dietary habits, now that my blood sugar is much twitchier than when I was younger.

I'm craving a snack. I'm not hungry, so I try to come up with something relatively light. I ended up microwaving a half-cup of soy milk with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla. It tastes like ... cinnamon-flavoured soy milk. Heated up.

Much better after adding some Bailey's and a few chocolate chips.

[roband]

Reheated curry leftovers and more homemade chapatis. Really impressed with myself - the first real meal I've made where I've thought "I'd have eaten that at a restaurant"

[dubsola]

I made risotto for the first time. It was delicious, and not nearly as difficult as its reputation. Basically just a lot of stirring and paying attention. I managed to fry smoked tofu at the same time without burning anything, so the constant stirring is apparently not strictly necessary.

There's two different schools of thought on the matter, one says you have to stir, the other one says don't bother stirring. I stir, and it's great, but I think just go with whatever works. The only thing about stirring, and this may sound obvious, is that you don't want the rice at the bottom of the pan to burn, and so I guess stirring helps distribute the heat evenly to all the rice.

[PAstrychef]

Stirring also helps release the starch from the grains, which makes the risotto creamy and delicious. Yo can use the same technique on other grains, such as barley and farro, both of which are great when cooked this way. I've even done it with pasta (smooth tubes) browned in a dry pan until golden.

[JudeMorrigan]

YIM: potato, leek and ... smoked herring soup. Yup, it's that part of Lent again, where I start looking for something, anything that's a bit different. I don't know how people do the whole pescatarian thing year-round.

[dubsola]

Yesterday I bought some wild rice, camargue red rice, and brown basmati rice. On the advice of the store owner, I cooked it up with a ratio of 1:1:4 respectively, and it turned out very well.

I made a sort of stuffed cabbage dish - the rice was cooked in a bit of vegetable stock for flavour, and I fried up some shrimp in garlic, spring onion, soy sauce, chilli, coriander, and then added lime juice - I then mixed this into the rice, steamed some cabbage leaves and served. I put the rice mixture inside a cabbage leaf and kind of rolled it up and ate it. Absolutely delicious and visually appealing

[roband]

More curry, vegetable this time, similar sauce. Only cooked in a saucepan for an hour or so - nowhere near as nice as slowcooked for 8 hours

And homemade naan, cooked on a pizza stone. It wasn't perfect, but it was bread and it went well with the curry.

[Ulc]

Something I shall never be doing again:

Risotto with smoked Mackerel

I was in the mood for an experiment, and boy did am I ever happy that it was a dinner for myself only, I'd been embarrassed to serve that for people, it was downright vile

[JudeMorrigan]

Hah, sounds like my aforementioned herring experiment. It actually wasn't bad the first day, but you know how the flavors of some savory foods intensify overnight? By the third night it was completely inedible. Which was somewhat unfortunate, as I really prefer to only cook twice a week.

[Thesh]

I made hot wings. Basically, just baked chicken wings (broken into the mid section and drumettes, the tips are in the freezer for stock), tossed in Frank's Red Hot and melted Butter. The flavor was perfect, but they were too mild. I need to get some insanely hot sauce that I can add to boost the heat without throwing the flavor off.

[dubsola]

The more risottos I try the more I become convinced that it's gotta be either mushroom or butternut squash. Those two are perfect.

I love the taste of smoked mackerel but it is a very strong flavour. I think it works best in salads. Like this one.

[roband]

I made hot wings. Basically, just baked chicken wings (broken into the mid section and drumettes, the tips are in the freezer for stock), tossed in Frank's Red Hot and melted Butter. The flavor was perfect, but they were too mild. I need to get some insanely hot sauce that I can add to boost the heat without throwing the flavor off.

Why not just use a higher Frank's:butter ratio?

Or is Frank's just not hot enough for you generally?

[Thesh]

It's the sauce itself that isn't hot enough.

[Thesh]

And for dinner today I made chicken covered in mornay sauce, broiled asparagus, and a salad of baby spinach with grated Parmesan cheese and an olive oil vinaigrette. It was good.

[poxic]

I'm making my healthy vegan breakfasts again! Wow, real food...

To be made the night before. Prep time about 5 minutes, mostly for chopping stuff:

Handful of leftover cooked grains (currently brown rice with quinoa)
1/2 sliced banana
1 or 2 spoonfuls of chopped dried fruit (mango and apricot, lately)
1 or 2 spoonfuls of chopped nuts (hazelnuts and almonds-or-pistachios)
Some shelled sunflower seeds
Dusting of cinnamon

Stir, then pack down into a bowl. Add enough apple (or orange) juice to just cover everything. Put a lid on it and keep it in the fridge overnight. Take it to school or work if there's no time to eat at home -- it'll keep in a backpack for a couple of hours. Bring a spoon!

[Nath]

I countered your healthy vegan breakfast with homemade chicken fried steak with sunny-side-up eggs and fried okra, followed by a peanut butter, banana and fig butter sandwich and a glass of milk. Thusly did I bring balance to the force.

[Bakemaster]

For my part, I broke down a chicken entirely today for the first time. I even did boneless, skinless breasts. I cut right through one of the oysters but got most of the other after realizing my mistake. I then proceeded to separate all the usable meat from the stock bits and the trash bits and will be making Somlah Marakot again tonight. But since that was around noon and I was hungry for lunch, I made a couple bread-less BLT/club things for me and the wife. Basically I just wrapped a couple big pieces of romaine around slices of bacon with chopped tomatoes, mayo and blue cheese. I added some sliced turkey and jalapenos to mine and burned myself a bit so I had to have a safety beer. But it was delicious.

[roband]

It's barbecue weather in England at the moment! I gather we do it a bit differently to the US, but damn, I love it.

Not sure what we're going to be cooking just yet, but I can't wait. This is probably the wrong thread but it's too late now!

[meridian]

Today, I mashed chickpeas with avocado oil, salt and cayenne. Then I sauteed mushrooms and garlic in the cast iron and added the chickpea mash and finally tossed some fresh tomatoes in for a second or two before serving. I think it tasted good, but I think I need an independent critic.

[poxic]

I think it tasted good, but I think I need an independent critic.

The real test is whether you will eat the leftovers without complaining.

[meridian]

I did eat the leftovers with only mild concern. (The tomatoes were a bit old.)

Last night, I made eggplant 'bacon' and only set off the fire alarm once! The eggplant remained too moist to even remotely resemble bacon, but it was a nice savory addition to a tomato sandwich. Also, I made black beans and rice. Yum.

[ahammel]

Today I made poxic's breakfast...whatever you call that from a few posts up. I used leftover quinoa, banana, walnuts, raisins and cinnamon. Realized when I finished it that I didn't have any orange juice, so I subbed in soy milk instead. Darn good eating, thanks!

Last night, I made eggplant 'bacon' and only set off the fire alarm once! The eggplant remained too moist to even remotely resemble bacon, but it was a nice savory addition to a tomato sandwich.

Smoked tofu is the best baconesque vegetarian food. This is a scientifically-proven fact that brooks no disagreement.

[poxic]

I used leftover quinoa, banana, walnuts, raisins and cinnamon. Realized when I finished it that I didn't have any orange juice, so I subbed in soy milk instead.

Soy milk will totally work. I tend to use fruit juice because the acidity helps keep the banana bits from going brown overnight. (I'm usually too rushed to do this in the morning.)

[PAstrychef]

Traditional museli is made with an overnight soak, often in milk. Otherwise you could chew on those uncooked oats for days and days and days.

I made spicy Sichuan green beans with ground pork. Not a great time to discover you are out of hoisin sauce, but I made do. The roommate liked them too.

[Nath]

I made spicy Sichuan green beans with ground pork. Not a great time to discover you are put of hoisin sauce, but I made do. The roommate liked them too.

This is one of my favorite Sichuan dishes, though I've never tried to make it. Did you dry-fry the beans, so they get all crispy on the outside?

Today I am making: ad-hoc chicken meatball sauce on polenta. Bunch of readymade ingredients, but we'll see how it turns out.

[meridian]

Smoked tofu is the best baconesque vegetarian food. This is a scientifically-proven fact that brooks no disagreement.

Unfortunately, while my mouth loves it, my stomach doesn't always agree with it.

[Bakemaster]

Did you guys know what week it is?

It's SOUP EVERY DAY week.

SOUP.

EVERY.

DAY.

I should note this conclusion has been reached empirically. And it is tasty.