So there is a sweet Indian place around the corner with a butternut squash soup that's like eating a delicious pumpkin pie (which James can perhaps attest to; I'm talking about Seva) and I decided I was going to make that, only with pumpkin instead because I'm of European descent dammit. My plan was going to be:
1 x Small can of pumpkin
1/3 cup Dried Coconut
1 cup +/- Milk
2-3 Bay Leaves
1 tbsp + curry powder
5-6 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground ginger
2-3 dried chilis, diced
I was going to crush the garlic and do that up in a neutral oil, then soak the coconut in ~1/3 cup of water, and puree it. From there, pour pretty much everything in together and boil it for a while before pulling the bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon. I suspect that I'd need more liquid, also that I'd get a bit spooked and end up doing ground cinnamon and cloves.
But with the cloves a bust, I ended up scrapping the whole plan and figured I'd cobble something together when I got home. Because I didn't go to the fruit store, I only had two in my house that offer immediate calories without requiring lengthy preparation, and I usually have the apples for breakfast. Luckily, I found some old silicon candy molds and used them to make gummy bear shaped ice.
http://i.imgur.com/ASiuK.jpg
Fig. 1 - An ice cube shaped like a gummy bear
I took some inventory and figured I could make something out of a tomato I bought last week, some onions, and the curry powder, possibly over rice, but I didn't end up buying the coconut, so that seemed unpalatable.
Eventually I resolved to order takeout. The place with the awesome soup even takes web orders from their stunningly convenient and informative website. Unfortunately...
http://i.imgur.com/D0qYG.png
Fig. 2 - One of the many things I don't stand for
At this point, I realized that my hopes for curry were probably not going to come to fruition. I was pretty hungry, and it occurred to me that I've been looking for an excuse to buy a lot of pizza from the place on 30th ave. I occasionally get a slice there if I get back too late to start cooking, and it's always damned good. I was all geared up to do just that (and maybe hit that fruit stand and replenish my stores) when I hit a snag.
http://i.imgur.com/rBhgd.jpg
Fig. 3 - My pants. Not Pictured: Me wearing them because I've been home for an hour typing up this post
This leaving me with but one recourse. Because my standards for the meal we know to constitute "dinner" have been so dramatically lowered...
http://i.imgur.com/EQont.jpg
Fig. 4 - The thing that lowers standards for what constitutes the meal we know as "dinner"
I'm probably just going to make a quesadilla by putting some pink beans and cheese onto a tortilla with some "generic tex mex sauce" I made a week and a half ago, consisting of:
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
(Cont'd from previous)
2 x Large Tomato (or a Box/can/bottle of crushed tomatoes)
2 x Medium Onion
1 Bunch green onion
Pretty Much Half a Head of Garlic
1 tbsp ground coriander (or whole seeds)
1 tbsp dried oregano leaf (or ground)
1 tbsp ground cumin (or I guess whole seeds)
2-3 bay leaves
Red pepper 'cause why not?
Fresh/dried chiles if you feel like it
A little bit, probably <1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Juice of a bunch of limes
A shot of some booze or other
Sweat the onions (both white/yellow onions, and green, including the greens) in olive oil (I like to toss in the chiles/red pepper at this stage, 'cause why not? And salt them, dammit), and while they're doing their thing, crush the garlic and if you have your druthers and a mortar & pestle, mash it up with the spices (Coriander, Oregano, and Cumin) and a little salt/oil.
In any event, when the onions are good to go (the white/yellow will be translucent), cut to half the heat you were using (and I add now you should do them over med/med-high to sweat them) and toss the garlic on. You want to let it go maybe five minutes.
While it's cooking chop up a handful of fresh cilantro. If you're the type that hates cilantro, you can skip this, replace it with basil, or you can crush the leaves, e.g. in a mortar and pestle. I don't claim to understand you people, but apparently crushing the leaves releases an enzyme that breaks down the soapy flavor y'all hate. Anyway, once the garlic is cooked, toss the cilantro into the pan and let it cook on the residual heat.
From here, you'll want to cut up or puree your tomatoes (I would do this in a sauce pan) and then toss the onion/garlic/spice mixture in there. Toss in the bay leaves, and then a bit of liquor--I made my own out of cilantro, coriander, red pepper and grain alcohol, but vodka will work just as well, and I often use akuavit on the basis that it will infuse the sauce with the blessings of Dio--then juice a couple of limes (1 good sized one, 2 littl'uns, more if you like lime a lot, which I often do, but not in this context). Then boil the jerkbag until it's reduced, take out the bay leaves, and then you're done.
Let it cool 5-10 minutes after you pull the aromatics to let the flavors converge. If it needs it, a good trick to add a "deeper" flavor is a splash of soy sauce.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
I've really gotta try akvavit one of these days. Also, maybe one of your recipes, although my favorite part of this topic was the lowering expectations followed by the new recipes/instructions for obtaining them. Devolving to "generic texmex sauce" is pretty dang amusing.
This is me posting in this topic to remind myself to post the simple recipes I gathered and figured out in my undergrad days so that everyone can eat like an Asian undergrad from the Pacific Northwest. Or something like that.
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That would be awesome because I haven't the foggiest idea how to do that.
What I had last night (and tonight):
2 x Good sized yellow onions
1 x Just ridiculously big tomato (which is going to go bad imminently)
4 x Zucchini (or some Zucchini and some yellow squash, unless the zucchini is on sale and going to go bad imminently)
5-6 cloves garlic
2/3 cup barley
1 can Pink beans (because I didn't think to buy what Goya calls "small white beans" and what I mostly know as an Italian word that can't be posted on GF)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 qtish Vegetable stock (I guess you can use whatever stock, or even water)
1 1/2 tbsp oregano
2 tsp savory
2 tsp dried basil (you should use fresh basil, but late September/:effort:)
Some red pepper 'cause I like red pepper
8-? thyme sprigs (I don't quite realize how to count thyme sprigs, but it's pretty hard to go overboard on thyme)
Parmigiana/Pecorino Romano/whatever you have handy
Dice and sweat the onions and while you're doing that, dice the tomato and boil that in the stock in a separate pan. Mash up the garlic--salt, oil, fresh basil first, and otherwise all the regular spices at once (oregano, savory, dried basil, thyme if you don't have actual sprigs, parsley if you can taste parsley; I've added rosemary in the past, but it gets a little busy)--and toss that in with the onions once they're sweated through. Cook that for 5-8ish minutes and then add the stock.
Slice up the squash (I like the squash because it doesn't really taste like much and compete with the spices, but other things you can consider include green beans, or if you're into tang some carrots I guess) and toss that in. Add bay leaves, thyme sprigs, lemon juice and some cooking liquor (this one is grain alcohol with thyme sprigs, rosemary, oregano, sage, other stuff; this one had saffron but I wouldn't bother again because yellow food coloring does the same job, and it's a dumb job).
Barley and beans can go in now. As a variant, try chick peas or something. Let it go for 30-45 minutes and you're golden. If you're up for it, make a small pasta--small shells, elbows, orzo--to accompany, and then sprinkle with appropriate cheese. Soy sauce trick works here too (mine actually came out way salty 'cause of the stock stuff I was using, but it panned out).
As you may have gathered it went the way it did mostly through having a tomato that had to be used and because I couldn't find the yellow squash or non-discount zucchini at the fruit store. Soups are a good way to use subprime produce, because you have to boil the hell out of it, and very few things survive a good boiling the hell out of.
A good addition (which I didn't do here) is to add a black olive pesto, which would be:
-1 clove garlic (uncooked; a variation involves frying the hell out of like half a head of garlic in extra virgin olive oil)
-1 can black olives
-Handful or more fresh basil depending on how basily you want it
-Whole lot of Parmigiana-or-whatever
Oil, garlic and basil in the food processor to get them good and cut up, then the olives and cheese. Subbing in some mozzarella for the Parmigiana/whatever works and makes a little airier. It is a kickass spread.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
PS Cloves are like $1.69 in Stamford. Wtf, grocers.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
So tonight I tried this guy:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/INDIAN-PEANUT-SOUP-1209071
Epicurious Suggested
2 cans garbanzo beans, drained
1 large can crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 carrots, diced small
2 onions, diced small
2 garlic cloves
2 TAB curry
2 TAB ginger
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste
preparation
Heat olive oil on medium.
Saute carrots, onions & garlic
for about 8 minutes
Add tomatoes,broth & seasonings
Cook 10 min low & covered
Puree beans & peanut butter
Add to pot. Cook low for 10 minutes
Turn off heat & add cream
Top with sour cream , peanuts & mint
And of course I made a couple of changes:
-I added 1 bunch of green onion 'cause I've had good experience with those in peanut dishes (would totally do again)
-Added 3 diced dried chilis (also totally worked)
-5 cloves of garlic, 'cause come on
-Omitted carrots, 'cause why
-Used fresh tomatoes (2) to add body (looking back, strained/crushed would have been the way to go with the soup's smooth texture)
-Swapped heavy cream (didn't want to buy it 'cause I'll never use it again) for 1/2 cup of skim milk, and used that to moisten the chickpeas/peanut butter
-Swapped mint for cilantro
-Added like three bay leaves (I do not get not adding bay leaves)
-Served over themato-ethnically appropriate rice (white basmati cooked with pinch of cumin seed, bay leaf, and then I cheated and added a little butter and soy sauce)
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This was good, but dense. I didn't start eating until 9:30 and I am still working my way through the first bowl.
I wish the curry came out more pronounced, but honestly I wouldn't change a thing spice-wise. There's a ton of heat, but it doesn't step on any of the other flavors, which all get along nicely. And I'm actually kind of glad I didn't bother with the cream/sour cream because it already hits like a highly nutritious brick.
I wouldn't bother dicing the onion, just puree it. I like this, but I feel like it's the kind of thing you'd ideally be able to eat through a straw. Also be aware that while doing up the chickpeas and peanut butter your food mill *might* explode.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
I haven't not been cooking, but everything I've done has blown for some reason.
Today I made a Peppermint infusion.
1 x 750 mL bottle of mid-shelf vodka (Smirnoff in this case)
1 x Heaping fistfull mint (a good amount of mint)
Separate the leaves and rub (but don't crush or mangle) the leaves. Put the leaves in the vodka and let sit for 24 hours. Taste, and if they need to steep longer, let them go, but check every few hours. Err on the side of caution with this, because most of the good flavors will be leached in the first 24-48 hours, after which the alcohol will start leeching bitter, bitter chlorophyll.
Strain and sweeten with simple syrup (don't just pour sugar in because sugar dissolves poorly in alcohol). Use a 1:1 ratio of sugar:water for a lower proof liqueur, and more sugar for a sweeter one (closer to a store brand).
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
Looks like some cool stuff in this topic. Just today I made some white chicken chili, which was pretty delicious. It just took:
1 can of Great Northern White Beans
2 ears of corn (or 1 can of corn)
1 pound of cooked chicken breast, diced
1 cup of chopped tomatillos (I'm making this up... I chopped seven of them, I have no idea how much that is or how much is appropriate)
3/4 cup of chopped tomato (see above)
2 cups of chicken broth (it happened to be store bought, homemade is fine but a pain to do)
1 onion (I used half of a jumbo vidalia), chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 handful of green chilis, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp black pepper
Throw the oil in, saute your onion and garlic, then when it is soft, throw in everything except the top three items. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10, add in the top three items, and simmer for five. Be sure to cook your chicken beforehand or during.
Really good recipe and super easy- only the cutting of the vegetables is the work, everyone I've shared it with likes it a lot. I put a dollop of sour cream in it, then a few tortilla chips and some shredded cheese. I just kind of make it up as I go, so the measurements aren't exact, and the ingredients might vary a bit. Last time, green chilis, this time, green finger chilis (???) and probably different spices.
It's only somewhat spicy- enough to make it interesting, but if you're a spicy food enthusiast or just a chain smoker, you may need to add in more spices. It's pretty safe for 90% of people, I'd guess.
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I'ma try that.
The other night I made lasagna and uh, it was awesome but I'm only going to type up the directions if somebody wants 'em. Cuz I'm really tired.
What kind of lasagna? I made a vegetable lasagna the other day that was literally the best I've ever had (well, the only good vegetable lasagna I've ever had).
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"To truly live, one must first be born." ~ Evan [aX]
Paper Mario Social: The Safe Haven of GameFAQs. (Board 2000083)
It was like, 1.5 to 2 lbs combined, of cooked beef and Italian sausage. A layer of noodles on bottom, a layer of spaghetti sauce (total we used two jars) and meat mixture, then a layer of ricotta and parmesan and mozzarella and milk (I think a quarter cup?) and one egg mixture, then a layer of noodles, then a layer of meat and sauce again, then a layer of noodles, and then lots of parmesan and mozzarella sprinkled on top.
Aluminum foil over top, bake at 375 for 35 minutes, then remove foil and bake for 10 more.
Also, we just used this recipe (with slight modification) to make Claussen-like pickles. I LOVE them but Jess says they're too intense. So I would say these are for pickle lovers and if you want them less intense, cut some salt. Also maybe turmeric would balance out the saltiness but I'm just kind of guessing there.
http://www.food.com/recipe/claussen-kosher-pickle-copycat-249520
We didn't put in any onion or any mustard seeds because we didn't have them and didn't feel like going out to get them. We also added like, a tablespoon-ish of coriander, because for some reason even though Claussen pickles clearly have coriander in them, they weren't in this recipe.
I'm accidentidrunk from syruping the booze from earlier.
An important tool tip to avoid tooling: tool your syrup in advance, which is to say have a recipient bottle larger than the original bottle from which you poured the liquor, so the syrup all fits in the liquor.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
Late edit: I remembered that Jess accidentally put in dill seed in addition to the dill weed; you're supposed to use one or the other depending on what you have. So if you make them according to that recipe they may be less intense than ours.
Broccolini is delicious fried in olive oil. Then again, what isn't?
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Change your signature once a month for optimal health, and don't forget to backslash your backslashes.
Olive oil/Garlic/Lemon? Oooh with savory and rosemary.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
I hate a tip: don't buy rosemary leaves. They are long and sticklike and the thought of trying to eat them again makes bile rise in my throat.
You want crushed rosemary (if you want to retain a little texture) or powdered, or I guess you could mash it up yourself. Ugh. Never again.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
Along those lines: if you have asthma, beware fresh basil. I know *exactly* how super-lame that is, but seriously, chopping fresh basil made my windpipe close up for a good 36 hours.
I know I said that I would contribute to this topic pretty much forever ago but I'm finally getting around to it now.
While there are certainly more complicated (and probably more delicious) chicken adobo recipes out there, this is how I made "bootleg" chicken adobo while I was in undergrad. It's pretty good:
Start with boneless chicken. Breasts, thighs, a mix, doesn't matter. You choose.
Apply salt, pepper, and garlic powder on both sides of all pieces of chicken.
Using a small amount of vegetable oil, fry the chicken.
After you've flipped the chicken once and it's almost done cooking, pour a good amount of soy sauce over the chicken. Unfortunately all the cooking I ever do is just 'to taste' so you're going to have to experiment with this one.
Immediately after that, take vinegar and pour it over the chicken as well. Again, this is to taste. A good starting ratio would be 1:1 and then adjust from there depending on how you like it.
Let your new sauce simmer down a little bit. Serve with or over rice.
It's not 100% authentic but it is a good meal and my friends would love it when I would bring it for parties. It's also really, really simple.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/45779_971970750768_10731392_51916627_8133528_n.jpg
Nearly done cooking. Admittedly this picture doesn't make it look as good as it actually is.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/25272_883870020338_10731392_48641637_202955_n.jpg
This is what it looked like when I made several batches (I think two) and then put them all in a pot so that I could transport it to a party more easily.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!
So last night as I’m driving to the store to help someone else with something they wanted me to help them cook (true story) I get a text from another friend asking me how to make fried rice. Naturally because I was driving I couldn’t very well text back an entire recipe, so instead I said I’d hit him up later. I posted the whole thing on his Facebook wall but it seems like a waste to just leave it there, so, without further ado, here is how to make fried rice. Or at least, how I make fried rice.
Stuff you’ll need:
Day old rice that’s been chilling in the fridge
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Bag of frozen corn
Bag of frozen peas & carrots
Optional:
Chili-garlic sauce (if you like it spicy)
Meat to add
Start with day-old rice that’s been chilling in the fridge so that it’s a little dry. Heat up your favorite large pan and put all of the rice in.
With a spatula or other cooking device, start smashing up the rice so that it starts to separate (as rice that is a little dry tends to clump up.) To help with this process, you can add soy sauce. I have no idea how much. The rice should not be swimming in it but it should be a satisfying slightly darker color. Not too dark or else it’ll be too salty. Just experiment and see. You can always add more, but it’s infinitely harder to take away.
The rice should already be pretty warm at this point. Take your bags of mixed veggies (I suggest corn and then peas and carrots but you can add whatever you like or whatever you have on hand) and pour as much in as you want. Continuously mix the frozen veggies in with the rice. If the rice is sufficiently hot, all of the ice melting off of the vegetables will start steaming and it’ll look really cool. This is also one way to help control how salty the rice is if you added too much soy sauce earlier, since the water off the veggies will help add water.
After the veggies have been added and are also sufficiently hot, add about two tablespoons of sesame oil (more or less depending on how much you like) over the rice and mix it around again until everything is nice and mixed.
If you wanted to add the chili garlic sauce or anything else, now is a good time to do that.
Mix around everything until it’s sufficiently hot, and then eat it. Delicious and easy and it really shouldn’t take more than about 20 minutes at the most.
If you want to add meat, you can do that too. If you wanted to add something like smoked sausage or kielbasa or ham or something like that, you should cook that first at the very very beginning and then add the rice from the fridge to it, and continue on from there. If you have already cooked meat from leftovers that you just wanted to add in, I’d put it in after the vegetables have released their steam.
Variations below:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/29111_908151170718_10731392_49487063_3033396_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/15022_886000765308_10731392_48707408_272134_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/15022_886002911008_10731392_48707438_1532551_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/19873_856275315348_10731392_47785479_2478343_n.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!
A really easy side dish I've been making... goes well to accent those "here's some meat" dinners.
1 box of couscous
Big handful of dried cranberries
Handful of slivered almonds
One apple (cored and chopped)
A bit of thyme
A bit more rosemary
2 cups of chicken broth (optional)
Prepare the couscous as it says (cook in a skillet a few minutes in a tad bit of oil) Add the chicken broth if you wish, then simmer it for about ten minutes. Or don't, and just add in the other stuff and mix it around on the skillet.
For the vinaigrette, simply mix
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (white if you don't have apple cider)
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp maple syrup (I use actual maple syrup here, not sure how it'd turn out with table syrup)
1/4 cup olive oil (mix well)
Then pour it on while mixing. It's really tasty and an easy way to fill up if your only entree is, like, hamburgers. It takes maybe 20 minutes, tops. 5 to cook, 10 to simmer, 5 to prepare the other stuff, and only a little supervision to make sure you don't burn anything.
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https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/377952_10100716440938518_10731392_59763817_1149071111_n.jpg
I made dinner for my parents tonight. It was good.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!