2009 Recipe thread!

[Dooks Dizzo]

Guys I just threw together one of the best improve meals of my career and I had to share it.

You will need:
Tortillas (flour)
Cheese
Cream Cheese
Jalepeno
Chicken
Avacado

Step 1:
Season and brown chicken. I started in a pan, then moved them into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

Step 2:
Veggy prep. Can be done while chicken cooks.
Dice jalepeno's into teeny tiny chunks.
Slice avacado into...well slices

Step 3:
Liberally spread creemcheese on one side of a tortilla, add sliced or grated cheese on top.

Add diced jalepeno's.

Add thinly sliced pieces of chicken.

Step 4:
Brown tortilla's in a non stick pan until cheese melts.

Serve with sour cream, use avacado as a garnish or cook it in with the rest, up to you.

It's like a chicken jalepeno popper only not fried, way bigger and extra awesome.

[Johnny.]

Lol we should have some kind of other section of GD for food and stuff.

And Dizzo, that made my mouth water. I'm now very hungry :p

[Paladin]

Somehow, despite the fact that I know I have all sorts of awesome recipes, none ever come to mind when a thread like this comes up somewhere. I mean, I have an awesome prosciutto wrapped meatloaf recipe, I make a great roast (Plus an au jus made from the drippings), but nothing else springs to mind at the moment...

[Lomax]

This one is good for parties, because it gets better the longer it cooks, and it's next to no work at all:

CHEESE SOUP WITH GROUND MEAT

---

Dice 2 onions, roast em in a pan, put 500g of ground meat in together with half a diced leek (cut that to half rings) and roast it too.

Put all that in a pot. Add 250 ml broth and 125 ml water, cook for 10 minutes.

Add 150g processed cheese spread with herbs, 150g cream processed cheese spread and a can of mushrooms (without the water ofc, pre cut mushrooms are good enough). Stir soup til the cheese is 'molten' in the soup.

If the soup is too thick, add more water. If too thin, cook a little bit longer.

Eat with a baguette for maximum tastiness.

[Kirjava]

I came up with this a while ago- it might not be individual, but I threw it together without reading it anywhere so it's MINE! Warning: the following is not a particularly precise recipe.

Chicken in a Sauce I Haven't Named But Which Is Certainly Tomatoe-y

_ _ _

Take as many chicken legs/thighs as you damn well please. Season with salt, pepper, oregano. Stick on tray, cover with foil, lob into oven for as long as takes on whatever temperature will get the job done (my oven is alarmingly temperamental).

MEANWHILE!

Dice yourself some mushrooms (and onions, peppers, whatever really) and give 'em a bit of a fry until they're looking tasty. Try not to use too much oil- mushrooms look like they're absorbing it all at first but it comes back later, and it'll sit on top of the sauce if there's too much.

Acquire the following: creme fraiche, tomato puree, chicken stock. Do the obvious with the chicken stock, ie turn it into broth. What happens next is largely speculative- I can never remember the right order so I go with what feels natural. Pour some of the stock mix into the pan- not too much at first. Add creme fraiche to start thickening it. When you've got a nice creamy sauce going, start liberally adding tomato puree until you've got something the colour of which resembles an attractive orange-ish and which has a decent consistency. Add more stock, creme fraiche and puree as desired until you arrive at what you feel has a healthy colour and a good consistency.

When the chicken's done (and you can't really check, so best to give it five minutes longer than you're inclined to, though some of you might actually have functioning cooking equipment), remove it, de-foil the tray and maybe congratulate yourself on having got this far or something. Insert chicken into pan along with nicely-bubbling sauce and veggies and whatnot, which you should now be able to turn the heat down on- you're giving the chicken a chance to get to know the sauce, mingle a bit, etc.

You may season said sauce if you so wish.

Throw some pasta in a pot and cook the shit out of it (I'm a big eater, so add MOAR PASTA). If this is a special occasion, feel free to use fresh pasta. It'll take, like, two minutes. If not, and using regular pasta, for Christ's sake don't wait too long to put it on, or you'll find yourself sitting around stirring pasta being hungry as hell while your lovely sauce and chicken sits there begging you to eat it. By all means salt or oil this pasta, or whatever it is you do to add flavour or stop it sticking, because that's fucking annoying.

Consume. Go back for seconds. Wish that you'd made more. Gorge on ice cream in a desperate attempt to drive away the feelings of loneliness and inadequacy the whole experience has brought about.

[SquidDNA]

Dice jalepeno's into teeny tiny chunks.

Is this correctly

"Dice jalepenos into teeny tiny chunks."

or

"Dice jalepeno's into teeny tiny chunk's."

I'll never understand why people use apostrophes to make some words plurals and not others, or why they do it at all.

[Dooks Dizzo]

I am now going to work on a delicious Squid recipe. I think it will start by boiling the Squid alive ;)

Anyway, good catch, I don't often mess that sort of thing up.

Besides, it's way more forgivable than the number of people what fuck up your/you're their/they're/there.

[Surrealitycheck]

I'll never understand why people use apostrophes to make some words plurals and not others, or why they do it at all.

I think it's its/it's lurking at the back of their mind with a prehensile tail, waiting to trip them up.

[Weavern]

Old but good recipe! Tastes great any time of the season! If you lack a blender or something to puree the mixture, just boil the broccoli longer and use a potatoe masher or something to break the stems.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

25 ml butter
1 onion, chopped
25 ml all purpose flour
375 ml chicken stock
1 pkg (300 g) frozen chopped broccoli (or approx. 3 cups/750 ml fresh broccoli)
1 ml pepper (you can add as much as your taste likes)
salt to taste
375 ml milk
375 ml grate Cheddar cheese
(6 oz./175 g)
1 ml Tabasco sauce (optionally you can add as much tobasco as you want for flavour!)
25 ml chopped fresh dill, parsley or chives
1 red bell pepper, chopped optional

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Cook onions until tender but do not brown. Stir in flour and cook 3 minutes. .

2. Whisk in stock and broccoli. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Puree mixture. Return to heat; add pepper, a little salt, milk, cheese, and Tabasco sauce. Heat thoroughly but do not boil.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve sprinkled with additional Cheddar cheese, fresh herb of your choice, and diced red peppers (optional).


Note: If you are using fresh broccoli, trim off tough stems, chop broccoli, and cook 15 minutes in step 2.
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 to 20 minutes

[Trizzdog]

OH SHI-- Where to begin...

Chili Curry. One of my favorites. This recipe can be as simple or complex, cheap or fancy as you like it.

You will need:

1 to 1-1/2 pounds of regular ground beef
3-4 carrots
1 large onion
4-8 cloves of garlic (IE to taste, I like lots!)
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can kidney beans **
1 can green beans
1 brick of green curry (wtf is that? this, for example!) (http://www.thisnext.com/item/B6349C90/DDFDA74A/Glico-Curry-Hot) *
2 cups of water
Seasonings, to taste!


* The brick is for simplicity, and for convenience. If you have the time, and are a more advanced cook, substitute the brick for:

Any curry mixture you like. I use 2 tablespoons "curry powder" (you can make your own, or buy the yellow powder in stores), 1 tablespoon garam masala, and 1 tablespoon cayenne powder... there's more to it than that, but that's my basis.
Substitute 1 1/2 - 1 cup of water instead of 2, depending on how much spice you use, and how thick you like it. You can also reduce to teaspoons if you don't want a strong curry flavour.

** Any beans are fine, just I love kidney beans in my chili. Replace the can with whatever you prefer, even pre-soaked dried beans!


ANYWAYS, onto the prep 'n' cook!

Take out a frying pan (or your weapon of choice in sautein' goodness) and a large saucepan. In the saucepan, dump in your beans and stewed tomatoes into it, along with the water (from 1 - 2 cups, depending on choices above). Bring to a boil.

In the frying pan, dump your ground beef into the pan. Brown that bitch good! Once it's browned, dump it into the pot, and try keep the grease out. Oh, and that leftover grease? Save it! You're going to use it to saute the veggies! I highly recommend it, but if you must for whatever reason, you can go on with just plain oil, and dump it out.

During the time you're brining stuff to a boil, and browning the meat, chop up the onion and the carrots however you like 'em, and mice the garlic up good. Keep aside until the ground beef it browned.

Now that the ground beef is aside, it's time to saute those veggies! If necessary, you can add a bit of oil (olive oil is wonderful). Just fry that shit up. At this point, I recommend putting in some seasonings. Go ahead and reach for the Mrs. Dash, it's good stuff! I use it myself, along with some fresh ground pepper and salt. Cook these veggies for awhile, until the onions are clear, and are about to caramelize. Once done, dump them into the pot. Now, this might bring up some controversy, but I recommend taking 1 tablespoon (or more) of that leftover grease, and dumping it into the pot too. Why? Because that grease, along with the olive oil, will have absorbed the flavour of the onions and the spice, which will add a rich flavour to the chili curry. If you must cut any calories wherever you can, you can forgo it.

Now you got all this shit in a pot. What now? Well, if you're using a brick, melt it into the mix, to turn it into chili curry. Let it simmer for 30 minutes, and you're done! Wow, that wasn't so hard, was it. Enjoy a hearty, well-earned meal. Serve it on rice or bread (I recommend naan!) if you want to stretch your dollars. Otherwise, it's good as is!

If you were the fancy type that used his own curry mix, you're going to have to let that all simmer for at least 2 hours. But you don't need me to tell you what to do if you're using your own spice. Experiment, and see what works for you!


Now onto the next recipe... here's my other curry recipe (can you tell I love curry?)

Butter chicken curry

Be forewarned: this stuff is rich. Only make it for special occasions! But it's simple, so let's move on!


You will need:


1 cup of butter or margarine (right off the bat, see what I mean?)
3 cups of heavy cream (and here comes the heart attack. If you don't want to go into a coma after eating it, substitute half 'n' half instead.)
1 can of tomato sauce
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
salt, to taste
1 - 2 pounds of chicken (I recommend getting chicken breasts, and chopping them up into cubes. Use any kind you like, really. Chicken legs are a good choice too)
1/4 of a cup of oil
2 tablespoons of curry powder


Alright, the first thing you gotta do is preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, you take a chunk of the butter (about 1/4th of it), melt that in a pan, and caramelize the (minced) onion and garlic. Yummy. To save a cooking dish, you can do this in a large saucepan instead, but that will extend the cooking time.

Now, take out a saucepan (or wait for the onions to caramelize in the saucepan if you're saving on dishes). Dump the rest of the butter, the tomato sauce, the cream, and the spices (NOT THE CURRY POWDER, THAT'S FOR THE CHICKEN) into it. Bring to a boil (put in your onions and garlic now if you haven't done so), then let simmer for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Since you're using cream, make sure to stir and check that shit constantly, lest you get it stuck and burnt on the bottom of the pan!

While you got all that junk in a pot, take out a baking dish, and put your chicken (whatever form it may be) into the dish. Take the oil and curry powder, and dump it on the chicken. Toss the chicken around, until it's fully covered. Put in the oven, and bake for about 20-30 minutes (for cubes), or up to 1 hour for boned chicken. This might take judgment on your part, but this is why I recommend every kitchen needs a meat thermometer... just to be safe.

Once the chicken is fully baked, dump it into the pot. Let it simmer, then enjoy! Definitely needs to be put on rice or naan bread. Eating it as is would guarantee a heart attack!



Well! That was alot of curry! Now it's time for something a little better for you...

Bitchin' Caesar Salad

Caesar salad is simple. But don't bother with that store bought dressing! Make your own instead!


What you need:

6 cloves garlic **
6-8 slices of cubed bread, left to dry *
olive oil, for sauteing *
BACON (as much as you like, cooked)
6 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (grated)
3/4 cups of mayo (REAL MAYONNAISE, FOR THE LOVE OF DELICIOUSNESS)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of mustard (Dijon or honey are good choices)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste
1 head of Romaine lettuce


*If you don't want to make your own croutons, buying some is perfectly fine. There's plenty of fine, premade croutons to be had! Skip the part about making your own if you buy some instead.

** If you're not making croutons, you need only 3 cloves, or a teaspoon of garlic powder if you're lazy

Heat a bunch of oil in a pan. Or, if cooking bacon, cook the bacon, and use the leftover grease instead. Either way, cut up 3 cloves into chunks, and throw them on the pan. Once cooked, set the garlic aside. Now, throw the bread cubes in. Add salt, pepper, and any other spices you like. Saute until browned and crispy. Set aside. Oh, and chop the bacon to your liking.

Now for the dressing! In a cup, mix the mayo, W-sauce, mustard, half the cheese, the remaining garlic (minced, not cooked), and the lemon juice. That's all you need to make great dressing! Add a bit of bacon if you wish. Mmm, bacon.

Finally, mix it all together! Chop the lettuce up, put it in a bowl, along with the croutons, bacon, and cooked garlic. Put the dressing on. Mix it up, sprinkle the other half of cheese on top, and enjoy!


-----

If you have any questions, let me know.

I think that's enough recipes for now. Later, I will post recipes for bacon chowder, simply pot roast, and cake doughnuts. Stay tuned!

[Methuselath]

Hah, thanks Trizz, been looking for a good Ceasar dressing. Have to skip the bacon though :(

Now, in case of emergency we usually pull this off with leftover rice:

Dried Chillies
Garlic
Vegetable Oil
Rice

You chop the garlic finely and sautee them nicely until fragrant, throw in the chillies, wait until the garlic is brownish and chuck in the rice. Simple right?

Right, but that's pretty much a base fried rice for practically anything. You can eat it with side dish, or you can throw in some eggs to the fried rice and make do. My favaourite is to eat it with an indian-ish broth and some chilli-shrimp thai sauce/paste. It's a quick recipe you can do and pull whatever you have in the fridge.

Now, with that in mind:

Garlic
Dried Chilli
Dried Anchovies
Vermicelli
Vege oil

Same thing, except you first cook the anchovies until their crisp, put it to side. Use the same oil for the garlic and dried chilli sautee, add anchovies when its fragrant then add vermicelli into the mix. Works awesome if you have a bit of pickled (nothing fancy, a mixture of sugar, salt and white vinegar) chillies to go with.

Finally, a side dish that works for emergencies.

Dried Anchovies
Green Peppers/Chillies
Large Onions
Potatoes
Vege oil

Fry the stuff seperately, put them to the side. Use the same pan and oil. For some crunchies when you're frying the stuff add a dash of sugar. Then put everything that you've fried (the chillies, taters, etc) into the same wok/pan and toss 'em around in high heat. Serve with rice/fried rice (works with the earlier recipe)

If you're doing the fried rice and the tater side dish, cooking time, less that 15 minutes if you're really good at it. That concludes Meth's Emergency Recipes for now.

[Wargrim]

Hmmmm... tasty!

I really like those threads, thanks for opening this years round Dooks! The only thing that bothers me is the fact that while my general English is good enough for every day purpouse, my cooking - related vocabulary is actually pretty poor. So i always need to check what certain words mean when reading those recipes. This and the fact that my cooking skills are limited stopped me from joining such threads in the past, but i have one recipe that i really have to share, and to compensate for my language deficite i have pictures, haha.



------------------------------------------------------------

Soljanka a la Wargrim
a very tasty sausage - Soljanka for the lazy cook. ( My original invention. )

( As you may or may not know, Soljanka is is very large group of meals originated in eastern Europe. Spelling will surely be different in other countrys, i am using the German spelling for everything i dont know the propper English name for. 2 of the main groups are meat - based Soljanka and sausage - based Soljanka. )

This recipe results in a meal for 2 hungry persons, or 3 not so hungry ones.

Equipment needed: Just one pot.

Ingredients: About 3/4th of a Gefügelfleischwurst ( Chicken - Meat - Sausage )
3 Big or 5 medium onions ( Hm, onions! :awesome: )
One glass of Letscho ( or Lecso, sour, Paprika/Capsicum/Pepper - based mixture )
One small tin of skinned or chopped tomatoes
Sour cucumber ( or Gherkin, or pickled cucumber if wikipedia is to trust )
Sour cream
Cayenne Pepper

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2723/omnomnom1zi8.jpg

Things to note:
- The quality of the Letscho determines the quality of the final meal. You want to get a Letscho that is a sweet one, with red Paprika, not a bitter one with green Paprika. Also, you want it to have a lot of Paprika bits and not a lot of liquid.
- Regarding the sour cucumber/picles, be aware there exist many varietys. You want what is called a "Gewürzgurke", wich is basically young cucumber in vinegar. No mustard, dill or salt! Only vinegar and some spices.

Preparations:
Cut the sausage into stripes, the onions into rough cubes and 3 cucumbers also into squares.

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/1599/omnomnom2xy7.jpg

Cooking:
- Roast the sausage stripes slightly. Do not let them start to get brown though. If you see the first sights of browning, you definitely need to go to the next step. Taste them to check the progress.
- Add the onion cubes and roast those slightly, too. They should become glassy and sweet, but no begin to be golden/brown.
- Start to add the Letscho. I do not usually do it all at once, but in several steps, to keep the heat in the mixture. Also add the tomatoes at this stage ( with the tomatoe soup/juice from the tin! ), if you use skinned tomatoes that are not chopped allready, squash them with the cooking spoon at this stage. From my experience, the glas of Letscho and the tin of tomatoes are in just the right relation, but if you maybe use selfmade Letscho or are unsure about the amount for another reason, make sure neither the Letscho nor the tomatoes become dominant, but you want the taste of both to mix. Let it cook a short while.
- Add the chopped cucumber.
- Assuming you used sweet Letscho as recommended, you now want a bit more sour in the mixture. Therefore, you add some of the vinegar/water mixture from the glass with the cucumber. You need to use your taste at that stage, as the right amount will depend on your ingredients.
- Now that you have the perfect mixture of sweet and sour, let it cook a short while, and then give it some background spice with the cayenne pepper. Do not overdo this, just a slight background sharpness!

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/4445/omnomnom3yw1.jpg

As the last step, take the pot down from the stove, mix in the sour cream and serve the meal.

You now have something that does not look like a lot, but is super tasty. And if you consider how simple it is to make, it is really damn awesome. :up: The only problem could be to get the right ingredients, the further away from eastern Germany you live.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/8293/omnomnom4ix0.jpg


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PS:
I vote that whoever has pictures of his recipe shall post those, and that whoever actually trys one of them shall also post his experience. :)

PPS:
This thread makes me hungry. Omnomnomnomnom!

[Kirjava]

Damn you Wargrim, I'm tempted to actually try that now! The missus is German, I might see if I can get her to bring the ongredients back next time she goes.

[Trizzdog]

If I had a camera, I'd take pics of the chili curry I'm eating right now.

[Sethero]

Hmm... lots of tasty foods so far! I'll throw one out there...

Sundried Tomato Pesto Cream Pasta

1 package of ravioli (I use a fresh crab and dill ravioli)
1/2 lb. green beans
1/2 large yellow bell pepper
3 roma tomatoes
Salt
Olive Oil
3 tbs Sundried tomato pesto
1/2 cup sour cream
Zest of 1 lemon

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in large frying pan over medium high heat. Break green beans into 1 inch pieces, slice or coarsely chop yellow bell pepper, add to pan. Cook 5 minutes or until green beans are tender. While these are cooking, cook pasta according to directions. Add tomato and salt to frying pan and cook another 2-3 minutes. Combine pesto, sour cream and lemon zest in bowl and stir until combined. Add pesto mixture to frying pan, drain pasta and combine. Serves 3-4.

I'm also going to throw my favorite bread recipe out there, as it's my forte.

Honey Wheat Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
3-4 cups all purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast (2 packets or equivalent)
1/3 cup honey (I recommend local honey; I use a mountain wildflower variety)
1/4 cup Shortening
2 1/3 cups hot water (125-135 degrees fahrenheit)

Combine 3 cups wheat flour, 1/3 cup honey, 2 packets of yeast and 1/4 cup shortening in large mixing bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined (should look like fine crumbles).

For stand mixers: Add water and mix on low for 30-45 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix for another minute. Switch from paddle to dough hook, then add 2-4 cups of white flour, one cup at a time, and mix on low until dough forms (should pull away from side of the bowl, still tacky to the touch). Increase to medium (I use speed 3 on my Kitchenaid) and knead for 4-5 minutes. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly to make sure dough is consistent. Form dough into a ball.

For hand mixers: Add water and mix on low for 1 minute. Increase to medium speed and mix for another minute. Using a wooden spoon or similar implement, stir in 2-4 cups white flour one cup at a time, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until dough is uniform and somewhat tacky to the touch. You can add flour, not more than 1/4 cup at a time, if dough is too sticky. Form into a ball.

When your dough ball, place in a large bowl well-greased with shortening and place in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled. A good trick to accelerate this is to place the bowl in the oven over a tray filled with hot water. The steam will speed up the rise to 30-45 minutes.

Take the dough and divide in half. Take one half, place on lightly floured surface and roll out to roughly 6 inches by 9 inches. Starting from one of the short edges, roll the dough up to form a loaf, pinching the dough together every 2 inches or so. Seal the ends of the loaf by pressing in on either end with your fingers and pinching the ends closed. Repeat with other half of dough. At this point, you can freeze the loaves if you would like. Be sure to place in airtight zipper bag. They will last roughly a month.

Place in 2 loaf pans (8 inch or 9 inch) and set in warm place to proof for 1 hour. Using steam as before, the proof time drops to 35 minutes or so. If you've frozen the loaves, it will take an additional hour or so and I do not recommend using the steam method.

After the loaves have proofed (risen, as it were), move rack to middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30-40 minutes. A finished loaf will be deep brown on top and sides, and will sound hollow when tapped. Let cool 30 minutes before cutting.

[SquidDNA]

Did some just post a bread recipe?

It's on.

(I'm going to type up a sourdough tutorial like I always meant to.)

[Harper]

I think the next question that needs to be asked is:

Who cheated and just googled something real quick to look creative? :jester:

Damn you guys are making me hungry...

[SquidDNA]

The recipes currently in the hwcommunity wiki have some really nice entries. Scribble's Sindhi Gosht is amazing.

If anyone wants to attach pictures that would be awesome.

[Wargrim]

"Who cheated and just googled something real quick to look creative?"
That would be a very dishonourable behaviour, and would probably be punished by being fried in hot oil.

"The recipes currently in the hwcommunity wiki have some really nice entries."
But i think some of the Relicnews Recipes threads of the past have not been intergated, and it is a bit hard to tell which are serious recipes and which not. ( Elephant stew? )

[Sethero]

I'd attach photos of the bread loaves, but I doubt that would be helpful. Heh. I didn't know you were a baker, Squid!

How about lemon poppyseed scones? I made some last night to bring to the office and they're mighty tasty.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tbs sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbs lemon zest (approx 1 lemon)
1 tbs poppyseeds
6-8 tbs half & half

Heat oven to 400 degrees. This temp is very important, so if you have an unreliable oven, use a separate thermometer to verify the oven is up to temp.

Mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add egg, poppyseeds, lemon and enough half & half to form a soft dough that just leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times. Place on ungreased cookie sheet (I put parchment paper on it but it's not necessary) and roll out into 8 inch round. Take a large knife, dip in flour, and cut into 8-10 equal slices, but do not separate the slices. Brush top with half & half and sprinkle with sugar crystals. Bake 14-16 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cooling rack immediately and separate slices. Serve warm.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q167/sethero/scone.jpg

This is the last remaining slice of a double batch I brought into the office this morning.

[snrjefe]

I got this via the family email threads over the holidays. This is my grandmother's recipe for yams. Simple and an excellent side dish. Add a little whipped cream or Cool Whip and it serves double-duty as a dessert with it's sweetness and hints of vanilla and orange.

Bake 5 or 6 yams, (or use canned ones). If you're baking the yams, you can bake them the night before and they'll be even sweeter when the dish is complete. It also won't cook the egg before it gets completely mixed in.

Should be 2 to 3 cups of potatoes, mash them up and add an egg, 1 tsp of vanilla, ½ tsp salt, ½ cup brown sugar, and ½ cube (stick) of melted butter. Combine and add grated orange peel to taste (a little goes a long way, start small).

Put in a casserole dish for baking, and sprinkle with mixture of 1 cup chopped pecans, 2 Tb flour, ¼ cup brown sugar, and a couple of TB of softened butter. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.

[Dooks Dizzo]

Guys, I am not kidding, my Jalepeno Casedillas are an absolute must.

[Sethero]

and ½ cube of melted butter

Pardon the question, but how does that convert to cups? :D

[snrjefe]

That's 4 tablespoons or about 1/4 cup of melted butter. Of course, you can't go wrong with a little extra butter.

[Kalamain]

Ok....I had to find this a while ago due to friends sharing recipes...And what with americans seemingly not being able to find a set of scales in the whole country so they used another measuring method....

http://www.inspired-by-chocolate-and-cakes.com/baking-conversions.html

The conversions work very well.

[Harper]

Lol Dooks, yours actually does sound pretty good.

Damn leftovers and my hatred of wasting food...

:(

[Civik]

Basically this is what I eat most days because otherwise food allergies/intolerances crop up.

Turkey Thyme (hah, just made that up!)

Needs:
Baking pan, casserole, or cast iron pot meant for oven use, preferably a deep pan(DO NOT USE PYREX, IT CAN EXPLODE IN FUTURE STEPS).
Turkey Breast(still on the bone)
Turkey stock
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Juice
Orange juice
Corn Starch or Brown Rice Flour (rice flour preferred)

Preheat oven to 415
Place fresh turkey breast in baking pan.
Use some form of fat to grease up the outside of the breast (I use palm kernel oil because I'm allergic to dairy).
Douse with about half a lemon's worth of lemon juice.
Sprinkle with Thyme, salt and pepper to taste.
Bake in oven uncovered for about 110-120 minutes (use thermometer to check that turkey is cooked thoroughly)

Once Turkey is cooked, place it off to the side to sit.

Get the pot and place it on the stovetop. Turn the stove on med-high or high and fill the pot with about 3-4 cups turkey stock, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/2-3/4 cup orange juice.

Salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil.

When it boils, bring temp down to low and using a whisk, slowly add rice flour until thickened to taste.

Once that is finished, carve the turkey as you see fit and enjoy with rice or other amenities.

I can't remember what kind of pot I use...(figured out that I now use a casserole that is made from cast iron) but I used pyrex until last week when it exploded on the stovetop. That was fun.

[Kirjava]

Let us not forget that sharing recipes on the internet is serious business.

[Sethero]

Ye dead thread ARISE! ARISE!!! Thread necromancy FTW!

So I maded banana bread last night to haul into the office and I thought I would share my recipe. It's a variation on a Good Housekeeping or Betty Crocker recipe (I think). Knowing there are some bakers on these forums, I figured it was worth sharing since it's one of few banana bread recipes that will remain moist under most circumstances.

1 1/4 C sugar
1/2 C butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 C mashed very ripe bananas (about 4-5 medium bananas)
1/2 C milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C nuts (if you swing that way)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom only of a 9 inch loaf pan or 2 8 inch loaf pans with shortening (I prefer the 9). In a large bowl, combine sugar and butter; stir until combined. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Add bananas (I usually hit these with a potato masher until almost liquified), milk and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just moistened. Pour into pan(s) and bake 1 hour (for the 8 inch pans) to 1 hour 15 minutes (9 inch pan) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Using a butter knife, separate the sides of the loaf from the pan, then remove the loaf to the cooling rack. Allow to cool completely, about 2 hours.

Wrap tightly (I use a bread bag with twist tie) and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate for up to 10.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Ah I was wandering where this thread went. I asked my mother for this recipe specifically to post in this thread but never got around to it. It's very simple, yet produces a droolworthy honey sauce that is ridiculously tasty.

"Honey Hen"
1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Salt+pepper or seasoning of choice
1/2 cup (!) of honey (best to buy something that pours rather than trying to get 1/2 cup out of a plastic squeeze thing ;) )
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp herbes de Provence

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Season chicken and put in a baking pan or casserole dish. You want something that's not significantly bigger than the chicken because if the honey sauce spreads out too much it will burn off which really sucks trust me. For the same reasons you don't want to use less than the full amount of honey.

Melt the honey in a saucepan and mix in the herbs and mustard. Pour the sauce over the chicken, then roll the chicken in the sauce to make sure it's well coated. Bake for 40-45 minutes, turning occasionally. The chicken should be well cooked.

Serve the chicken then pour the sauce over. The sauce is super tasty and there should be a lot of excess so you can coat whatever the heck else you want with it.

[Harmanoff]

Here's one i tend to throw together if i feel lazy, like today.

4dl Quinoa
8dl vegetable broth
2 avocados
10 cherry tomatoes
1 red onion
200g feta cheese

Dressing:
15ml vinegar
45ml olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

Boil quinoa in vegetable broth for 15-20 minutes until its soft and there's no water left in the bottle of the pot. In the meantime chop and fry the onion slightly(i think it taste too strong of onion otherwise but if that's your cup of tea skip the frying), chop the cheese and avocado into small pieces, divide the tomatoes in two.

When the quinoa is done mix it with the dressing in a large bowl. Then mix in everything else. Eat.

[Sethero]

I will be trying that as soon as possible Shoe... that sounds tasty!

[Navenis]

I tried the first recipe for my family they all enjoyed it thanks relic news/ Dooks Dizzo :P

[Octopus Rex]

Here's one that's useful and seems to escape a great many people, so many so that it needs spelling out!!

STEAK:

1 x Sirloin Steak
1 x Griddle Pan
1 x lemon
Pepper
Olive oil

-Heat pan till really hot (no oil)
-Trim the fat off the steak
-grind pepper all over the steak
-cover steak in oil
-cook steak for 30 seconds on each side
-cook steak for a further 1-2min (depends on how the recipient wants it done) on each side, be brave, overdoing a steak is the worst sin (rare and bloody is best).
-squeeze lemon over it
-serve with chips or in a ciabatta.

Tips:
-don't use a fork to turn it, you're likely to pierce it and let the juice out.
-The steak will continue to cook after you take it off the heat, so err on the side of under cooking.

[SubakuGaara]

quickie garlic bread
bread
garlic salt
butter or spread

take bread and butter both sides
sprinkle garlic salt on both sides to taste
throw on griddle pan or other flat pan with high heat
turn when brown

enjoy with red wine and pleasant company

[SquidDNA]

Try to keep this above the college dorm level, huh?

[SubakuGaara]

lol. one must be prepared for food for all occasions. besides my schezuan salmon is probably a bit too much for you guys in terms of jaw dropping, eye popping flavor

[Caesar]

Borshch

It's beet soup. Yeah.

Stuff you need:
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1 minced onion
* 1 pound of shredded beets
* 1 cup of diced tomatoes
* roughly 2 quarts of beef stock
* 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon of sugar
* dash of salt
* half cup sour cream
* 1 bunch of fresh dill (chopped)

Get yourself a pot (preferably an awesome one) and pour the oil into it. Add the minced onion and saute it until it's see through. Around this time, add your beets and tomatoes. You should heat them until they're soft. Once that's done, pour in your beef stock, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 1-3 hours. How long it simmers is up to you and how you like your borshch. Make sure the veggies don't get too mushy. They should be soft, but still maintain their texture and shape.

Taste it every hour or so until it gets to how you want it. Then you can serve it hot or cold with a bit of sour cream on top.

[Flagg]

I remembered making a bread and butter pudding once, but using croisants instead of bread...hafta to try and dig that out to post up.

I'm a big fan of cooking and really enjoy it. The cheese and brocoli soup from Weavern in particular sounds really good.

Are there any of you that are particularly good at desserts or sauces?

[reki]

I'm a big fan of Roast Chicken, and over the years have tried out many, many different ways of perfecting it. In my opinion, here are two of the very best I've worked out - both adapted from very different styles:

Incredibly delicious French-style Roast Chicken with a roasted vegetable jus

Before attempting this one, make sure you have a good ventilation fan over your stovetop, because it creates a good amount of smoke. Open nearby windows and be wary of smoke detectors going off. Okay, lets see... you'll need:


1 Free range (preferably organic) Chicken. Don't ever buy shit cage chickens for roasting, unless you have absolutely no other choice.
A decent handful of flat leaf parsley
A few sprigs of rosemary
A handful of fresh thyme
Butter
Some twine/string
A couple of cups of chicken stock (preferably home made, but bought stuff would suffice)
One garlic head
Some vegetables - I usually just pick out whatevers good from the local grocer. Stuff with lots of different colours is always great.


Preheat your oven to about 450F/230C (yes, hot!).

Wash your chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Cut off the wings at the elbow, leaving two little stubby arms. Throw the wings away.

Wash and de-stem your herbs, and then chop them all up finely.

Cut off a chunk of butter - if I were to guess an amount, maybe three-four tablespoons? It doesn't matter that much, just have a guess and add to it if there's not enough after the next part. Put the butter in a bowl and microwave it for about ten seconds to soften it up if it isn't already soft.

Put half of your herbs in with the butter and use a fork to mix it together to make a herb butter. Like I said, add some more butter if it seems too herby.

From the neck end of the chicken, push your fingers under the skin of the two breasts to separate it, creating two pockets under the skin (try not to separate the edges of the skin from the chicken). Spoon the herb butter evenly into the two pockets and flatten it out across the breasts under the skin.

Pour the rest of the herbs up the chickens arse, then cut the garlic bulb in half horizontally and plug up the chickens arse with half the garlic head (ie. don't worry about peeling the garlic or anything).

Now you need to truss the chicken - this is actually really easy once you've done it once. Here's a diagram: http://www.algonet.se/~sm6fzd/food/chicken2/chicken1.htm

OK so your chicken is all ready, just season it a little and set it aside.

--------

For the jus/gravy:

Cut up a couple of handfuls of various vegetables - these aren't the ones for eating, so you don't need to peel them or anything, just make sure they are well washed. You can use any vege's really - even stuff like celery will be fine. Put some olive oil on them and throw them into a small roasting pan - the chicken will go on top of these.

-------

For eating:

Wash, peel and cut up a bunch of vegetables. As I said before, I like to use a good mix of colourful stuff, so maybe I would use a couple of potatoes, a few squash, some carrots, maybe some baby brussell sprouts and different coloured peppers/capsicums and a couple of red onions. Put them all into a bowl and then toss them with a few splashes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Spread them out on a baking tray.

-------

Put the first tray of gravy vegetables in the oven. Turn up the overhead fan to high.

Grab a frying pan, add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil and then put it on high heat on the stove. Wait until the oil starts to smoke, and then lay your chicken in the oil on one side. Leave it there for about four minutes, and then turn to do the other side, then after another four minutes, do the bottom, then turn it over and do the top.

Be careful, because the pan might catch fire at any point. Don't panic, it's normal when cooking at high heat. Just remove it from the flame if it does. As I said before, it will also smoke a lot.

After this process, your chicken should look very nice and browned, and kinda French looking.

Take the vegetable pan out of the oven and put your chicken on top. Put it back in the oven with your other oil/balsamic vegetable pan as well.

Roast for about 40 minutes, giving the balsamic/oil vegetables a shake/turn about half way through.

Turn your oven off and take out your chicken pan, leaving your other vegetables in the oven to keep warm. Using some tongs, lift your chicken and tip the juices over your gravy/jus vegetables and then put your chicken aside, covering it in foil.

Transfer your gravy vegetables and any juices to a frying pan. Cover the vegetables in chicken stock and turn the flame up to high. Basically, you want to create a reduction gravy. You can reduce the mix to nearly dry if you like, just add some more stock and keep going. Keep doing this until the vegetables are all soft - add a bunch more stock, bring it to the boil and then mash your vegetables into the pan to extract the most flavour from them.

Making sure they are covered in stock again, strain the vegetables through a strainer, retaining the liquid. Put the liquid back on the stove and keep reducing it until you have a tasty jus. Basically, the more you reduce it, the stronger the flavour of the jus will be. You can also keep pouring off the juices from your resting chicken into the sauce.

That's it. You're ready to carve and serve. Mmm.. this one is great.

----

Tasty Roasted Chicken with a tarragon, wine, orange and honey jus

This one is a lot easier to make, but still extremely tasty. I've found a couple of smaller chickens are better for this rather than a large one, as you have to be careful to make sure it's cooked all the way through.


3 oranges
100g butter
bunch of tarragon
1 chicken (free-range of course)
5 tbsp honey
300ml red wine


Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Zest the oranges and juice 2 of them. In a small bowl, combine the zest, 50g of softened butter and a handful of tarragon leaves. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with this mixture.

Season the chicken and rub a little butter into the skin. Transfer to a roasting pan. Combine the orange juice and honey and pour over the chicken. Pour the red wine into the pan (not on the chicken) along with 50g diced cold butter and some sprigs of tarragon.

Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C/320F and cook until the chook is ready (you'll know this when the juices run clear when the flesh is pierced with a skewer - depending on chicken size, it could be anywhere from 60-100 mins).

Set the chicken aside, cover with foil and strain all the liquid from the roasting pan into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it has reduced by about half. Season to taste and serve with the chicken.


---------

[reki]

-----

Edit:

Actually, I thought I would add to this, because the first recipe works better with a Roast Chicken Jus - it's just that making a good jus can take a lot of time. However, like stock, once you've made it, you can just freeze it and use it as required. Sometimes, if I find myself with a spare afternoon, I might make up some stock and jus and freeze it (it will keep frozen for up to six months).

A stock and a jus are very similar - basically a stock is just a bunch of raw boiled ingredients, reduced down over a few hours (usually chicken, beef, fish or vegetable based). A jus is usually cooked ingredients and liquid (wine, stock, water etc) which is cooked at high temperature and reduced down to a sauce.

So, here is a basic Roast Chicken Jus:

You'll need a few pounds (1.5kg) of chicken wings (any chicken would work, just wings are cheap)
A decent amount of butter
A bunch of fresh thyme
A couple of onions

You'll need a couple of good sized saucepans for this (or a sauce pan and a stockpot or two stockpots or whatever).

Fry half of the chicken wings in one saucepan and half in the other, over a hot heat with a bit of vegetable oil. Make sure that they aren't stacked up in the pans (do them in batches if you don't have enough room).

Finely chop the onions and throw them in with the chicken, cook until soft and also add a couple of sprigs of thyme to each pan.

Add a nice big chunk of butter to each pan (like a few tablespoons) and fry the chicken until its a really deep brown colour.

Add a cup of water to each pan and reduce over a high heat until its almost all evaporated again. Repeat this once more. Then add four cups of water to each pan, bring to the boil, and then transfer the contents of one pan into the other.

Reduce the pan to a simmer, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Turn the pan off and let it sit for a few minutes, so the fat settles. Skim the fat off the top and strain the liquid back into the other clean pan. Over a high heat, reduce down to about two cups (or to taste).

A jus doesn't start to really take flavour until its reached a certain reduction point. Before that point, it will taste bland and watery, but keep tasting - once it gets to that perfect point, you will know.

[Beholda]

o_O this thread reminds me of the Pro @ Cooking forums except this is actually active!
Awesome recipes guys :)