Cooking Strut?
G_Balliando
3,916 Posts
After checking the Sopranos thread, I realized that several people around here might be into cooking. Cooking is my new favorite thing to do (after record digging of course) and I've been inspired to develop new meal ideas. Where's all the good cooks at? What have you been making lately? Let's get a Soulstrut cookbook going here. Recent meals from scratch/fresh ingredients:Chicken Enchiladas, Pinto Beans, Mexican Rice Crispy Chile Rellenos (made with fresh roasted green chiles)Organic Baby Romaine and Fresh Roasted Green Chile salad with Lemon-Pepper Breaded and Fried Chicken Tenderloins with a spicy barbecue sauceSteam Baked Chicken Breast stuffed with Fresh Mango SalsaShare yours, help me be creative.
Comments
Quick reading that sentence made me feel uncomfortable.
there.
-cook up a 1/4 chicken (boneless, skinless) and a pound of sausage, get yourself a box/bag of red beans & rice and begin cooking that how its directed, in another frying pan sweat some onion, celery, crushed tomatoes, ground pepper, kosher salt, red pepper flakes. once the veggies are done, mix those with the chicken and sausage. once the simmer time is half over for the beans & rice, add the veggie/meat mixture. youve now made jambalaya. bake up a side of cornbread muffins and hush puppies, grab a couple of beers or get those already made margarita mixes and enjoy.
-got leftovers in the fridge? veggies, meat, rice, potatoes... make soup! chop up your ingredients, add some crushed pepper and kosher salt, 4 cans of veggie or chicken broth (depending if youre vegetarian or carnivore), heat up in a soup pot. get yourself a loaf of bread. cut length wise. spread butter on both sides of bread. get some grated cheese (your preference... or try two or three at once for more flavor) and spread on top so there is a nice layer of cheese. put into a 350degree oven for 10/15min (keep an eye on it) and you got yourself homemade soup and cheese bread.
Spaghettini tossed with olive oil, steamed rapini and oven-roasted garlic and tomatoes
Grilled green beans tossed in sesame oil and chilli flakes
Fried dhal
Lavender short bread cookies
i also wanted to add that lately when i bake cookies... what? i bake... ive been adding a little vanilla extract and a handful of butterscotch morsels to them and its been a lot tastier. easy on the morsels though... a little goes a long way. or... whats easier is to place two morsels on the top of the cookie right before placing it in the oven.
Wow the green beans sound good. You use whole fresh green beans?
Isn't Dhal an Indian Lentil dish? How does that get fried? Please educate.
Lavendar Shortbread cookies sounds interesting too. Use a normal short bread cookie recipe and add lavendar extract I'm assuming?
Good stuff folks, keep it coming.
Yes!
White beans are great in soups as well...and baked with whole garlic, tomatoes, parsley, oil and cheese.
Everyone makes it a little different, but I fry the onion, garlic, mustard seeds, turmeric, curry powder and chillis in ghee for a while and then add the lentils, the little itty bitty red ones cook a bit faster than the yellow ones (you can use both).
Top with fresh cilantro, chopped tomatoes and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Yes, whole green beans (save for the brown bits at the ends) don???t soak them in the oil, just enough to cover them, toss them on to a flat pan and turn them over now and then ??? about 15 ??? 20 min
For the cookies - use fresh or dried flowers - makes it look good too. The extract might make it too bitter. Mint shortbread cookies are also amazing - same thing - fresh or dried mint.
Daaaamn good lookin out on that one, I am a big mint fan. I'll have to try that. All this struff sounds good so far.
Hmmmm...
Vanilla Bean Cake (my most requested jawn)
Buttermilk Panna Cotta (the great fraud of desserts...looks so fancy; takes like 10 minutes work, and a refrigerator.)
Pear-Cherry Crisp
Apple Dumplings (unexpected hit of the winter)
I've got the recipe to the top one stored in my email...get at me if you're interested.
what can you tell me about baked pears in some sort of wonderful sauce? like chocolate or something boozey and sweet?
edumacate, plaese.
Yeah, and a little more detail on the vanilla bean cake and the Panna Cotta?
Poached pears are a favorite...I serve them in a ginger-chocolate sauce. I just poach them in some white wine, water, sugar, v. bean, star anise, whatever nice aromatic herbs you have around. I have a recipe for poached pears with a port-wine granite that looks great, but I've never tried. (I used to be a baker/pastry chef, so I get a little adventurous at times.)
Here's my recipe for cheap margaritas that are better than margarita mix....
Get that minute maid limeaid that's like a buck, in the fridge section of the store next to the orange juice. Then put in a shaker:
2 parts tequila to 1 part triple sec (usually I do a full jigger to a half)
1 tsp. Lime juice, or to taste
Fill up shaker with ice & limeaid, shake. Serve in a glass rimmed with margarita salt.
Alternately, you can make ice cubes from the limeaid and crush them in a blender.
Oh, and these.
My favorite panna cotta recipe (above mentioned buttermilk) come's from Claudia Fleming's "The Last Course". Its kind of expensive ($40 new) but if you can find it used or at a library, it is highly recommended. Beautiful, seasonal desserts. Anyway, panna cotta is in the flan or creme brulee family, except it has no eggs. It is cooked cream & (in this case) buttermilk, a minimal amount of gelatin to help it set, sugar and vanilla. Youu heat the milk/sugar/vanilla, take it off the heat (as I recall), add gelatin until smooth, pour in ramekins and refrigerate. Chill for at least 4 hrs. It is the lightest custard...Great for the summer, when it is hot, and you want a nice, cool dessert and you don't want to spend too long standing over a hot stove or turning on the oven. serve with some fresh fruit on the side.
The vanilla bean cake was my favorite from a bakery I used to work at. Almost like a pound cake, but not at all. Has vanilla beans, extract, and vanilla sugar incorporated into it, and then you brush on a vanilla-sugar syrup that sets up into a crust. Like I said, my most requested dessert.
Alright, I have seen this dish fucked up so many times in the US it makes me ill. There is no cream or milk in it so if you ever see a recipe with that spit on it and flick your chin at it. It is easy to make, but it requires speed at the end. If you are a lily livered chef don't even bother you will fuck it up.
Ingrediants:
-1 box of pasta ( I like spaggetti, angel hair is too thin and fetuchini is to thick. I have had it with penne and it is alright)
-3 quarters of a pound of pancetta in big ?? inch slices (some recipes say you can use ham or regular bacon. I say that is utter bullshit, and only pancetta will do. Its Italian cured ham and it is fucking incredible)
-about 4 eggs
-A bag of frozen or fresh peas
-A brick of parmigiano origiano (If you even think about using that Kraft shit a guy in a valore track suit will show up and kill you and your dinner guests)
-Fresh cracked pepper, salt, and olive oil (if you don???t have these already in you kitchen, just go to Olive Garden because you don???t know what good food is anyway)
First cut the pancetta into small pieces about 2cm by 2cm. Trim off the excess fat you only really want the meat with just a little bit of fat on it. Now cook the pancetta in a saut?? pan on medium heat. Don???t just throw all of the pancetta in the pan at once. Only do a small handful at a time. Otherwise it will not get crispy, it will be chewy and gross. After each small batch is cooked until it is crispy, but not burnt, put it on a paper towel to remove the excess grease. Once you are finished cooking all of the pancetta put it off to the side for later.
Now start boiling your pasta water. Add salt and olive oil to the water before you start.
You will need to have your grated cheese ready along with the peas and the pancetta. You can thaw the peas in the micro if they were frozen, but don???t over cook them they should be firm. 3/4 a cup of peas should be fine.
Now beat 4 eggs in a room temperature bowl and add good amount of fresh cracked pepper.
I will assume you can figure out how to cook the pasta, but don???t over cook it. It should be firm.
Once the past is finished drain it but not too much. Pour it through a strainer over the sink, but do it quickly then put the pasta in the bowl (you want some to the pasta water to stay on the noodles, but you don???t need much) with the beaten eggs and add all of the other ingredients. Move fast for these last few steps or you will ruin dinner. Stir it us so the eggs and the cheese coat the pasta. You do not want the egg to cook hard. If it starts to look like scrambled eggs you fucked up. It should be more like an eggy alfredo sauce. If you are afraid of slightly raw egg you are a candy ass and should go to Olive Garden. Now serve it hot with some nice white wine and enjoy.
i feel woozy just reading this. yummers.
rapini, prosciutto, and romano beans on orichiette
Pretty simple, too. Basically you put some well-salted water on to boil. When it's boiling, throw in the stems of the rapini, cut into 2 in pieces. After a minute, throw in the tops and let it all boil for another 2 minutes, then take it all out (leave the water, now green, boiling) and run it under cold water to stop the cooking.
Add the pasta to the water. I use orichiette (little ears) because they trap little bits of food, which I enjoy.
Cut up some proscuitto and drain a can of romano beans.
Heat up some garlic and some chili flakes in a pan, and add the rapini and the beans and the proscuitto to warm everything up.
Dump in the pasta, and toss with lots of pepper and some salt, and serve with lots of freshly grated parmesan or pecorino. The dish can sometimes feel a bit lacking in salt, because the proscuitto and cheese are supposed to add it, but I always end up adding more during the cooking.
Here is that Vanilla Bean Cake recipe I told you about. We made this
at Hi-Rise, and it was my favorite thing on the menu. Couple tips:
Give the cake plenty of time to cool after brushing it with the
vanilla sauce, and the cake will set up a nice, crunchy crust. Also,
it is called "Vanilla Bean Loaf Cake" at hi-rise, but I like to make
it in a spring form cake pan...any 9" cake pan should be fine, but I
prefer the springform, as it is slightly taller. The cooking time is a
little shorter, but not by much...maybe 5 minutes.
1.5 Cups Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups vanilla sugar* (see note at bottom)
1/2 Vanilla Bean split and seeds scraped
1/2 TBSP Vanilla extract
4 eggs
Vanilla Syrup Glaze
3/4 cup + 1 TBSP sugar
1/2 cup water
1 vanilla bean split and seeds scraped
Set oven at 325, butter cake pan
Sift together the flour, bakind powder and salt.
In mixer, using the paddle, cream the butter and vanilla sugar until
the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean seeds to the
mixture along with the vanilla extract and eggs. Beat to mix.
Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat with a few turns of the
paddle until it is just smooth. With a rubber spatula, fold the batter
from the bottom of the bowl into the mixture to make sure it's well
blended.
Scrap batter into the pan. Bake the cake for 30 minutes, turn the pan,
and continue baking for 25 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in
the cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn the
loaf out of the pan, and return to the rack.
SYRUP:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the water.
Add the vanilla beans and stir so the seeds disperse. Remove from
heat.
Place the cake on a rack over cookie sheet. Brush generously all over-
bottoms and sides- with the syrup. Brush with more syrup as the cake
continues the cooling. cool completely, and serve with fruit, ice
cream, whipped cream (with more vanilla sugar) or anything you want! enjoy!
*(split vanilla bean and leave in sugar for a few days...OR (this is
my method) leave used vanilla bean husks out to dry or dry on low heat in the
oven. cool, and chop with knife. then, put in food processor with
sugar. 1 bean chops into approx. 2 cups sugar.)
it's all art. food is the 9th element of hip hop.
See: DJ Quik
1. Susanna Foo - Chinese Cuisine (I love this cookbook)
2. Rick Bayless - mexican kitchen
3. Jean-Georges - cooking at home with a four star chef
There's three to get you started. One thing about being a cook is that it interfere's with my digging. But I'll be rocking tunes in the kitchen!
let's start with something simple, I just had salad for lunch today and I made a vinaigrette. Here it is....
miso vinaigrette
1 bunch of green onions (finely chopped)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1-1.5 tsp miso paste
3 tbsp vegetable/corn oil
1 dash of sesame oil (little goes a long way)
1 lemon wedge (optional)
1 glove of garlic
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin (honey is a viable substitute)
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of cayenne pepper (adjust accordingly to your heat palette)
1 thai chili (optional)
fresh ground black pepper
Put rice vinegar, mirin, garlic, miso paste, soy sauce, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper in a bowl and stir until properly mixed. If so desired you can add a hint of citrus right now w/ a squeeze of lemon wedge (optional). Taste and add more salt/soy sauce according to your palette, then slowly pour in oil and whisk evenly while doing so. Add green onions and thai chili and continue stirring. Let sit for 10-15 mins then serve.
Key points to a perfect vinaigrette, the ratio is typically 3 parts oil to 1 part acid. Obviously this applies for mild oils like corn/vegetable/olive, so if you're using something strong like sesame, you have to mix it in w/ other oils to balance it out. Also, very important to season it right before mixing in the oil as it becomes harder for the flavours to blend once the oil is poured in. Finally, dress salad only when you're ready to eat, don't let the vinaigrette sit in the salad for too long. Plus, a little dressing goes a long way, please don't overdress.
more recipes later....
Hey I've always wondered something - do restaurants really make risotto from scratch after you order it? Seems like it would take too long, and since I try to avoid a half-assed version, I never order it. What really happens?
very interesting dude, how are you enjoying life as a chef? I always like talking shop w/ chef's, you dudes are a different breed that's for sure.
I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook.
as in most restaurant cooking, a lot of preparation steps are taken before service. Also most menus are designed with efficiency in mind.
that's the thing about cooking at home, it makes you realize how much butter, salt, and sugar are used in processed foods and restaurants!