Cooking For Noobs

[LongRider]

There is plenty of fraud in the organic market as well.  Certified or not, I pass it by.

[DanteGabriel]

29 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Now I'm wondering if it's really worth paying more for some of the expensive olive oil brands. And how can we be sure it's 100% unadulterated? 

As for honey, I've stopped buying from the usual grocery/supermarket brands. I will buy only from local beekeepers who have a good reputation. So much fake stuff out there.

 

My wife has resorted to buying olive oil and parmesan from a local boutique owner who goes to Italy a couple of times a year and literally watches them press the olives.

[litechick]

Some here know me as an inferior cook.  Lately I have been limiting sugar, oil, and wheat in my diet.  Tonight I am drinking and threw caution to the wind.  I made what can best be described as...scrambled pancakes.

I started with something that resembled a pancake batter--sugar, oil, wheat:  bring it on!

However, upon spreading the batter into my pan I found myself not sober enough to flip it and so...scrambled pancakes!

It ain't pretty but it got the job done to fill my belly with everything I should absolutely not be eating.  Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

[BigFatCoward]

On 9/13/2023 at 9:37 PM, DanteGabriel said:

My wife has resorted to buying olive oil and parmesan from a local boutique owner who goes to Italy a couple of times a year and literally watches them press the olives.

So he says. 

Reminds me of my friend who owns a chocolate factory, and how devastated his nephews/nieces were when they visited and it was just an industrial unit with no oompa loompa's. 

[kissdbyfire]

I’m a fairly terrible cook but I have 3 things I can make that turn out nice, and this is one of them.

Squash and coconut milk soup

Ingredients:

squash or pumpkin ~ 1,5kg

onion 2 medium

coconut milk (the proper thick one) 500ml

ginger root 

chilies (optional)

olive oil

salt

 

Cube the squash, chop the onions and grate a little bit of fresh ginger root but you’ll only use the ginger towards the end. 

Pour some olive oil in a pot (low heat), add the onions, the optional chilies and a little salt. Once the onions are translucent, add the cubed squash; put the lid on and stir from time to time so as to not allow it to stick or burn. Once the squash has softened, add a little water and a bit of salt (or not depending on your taste) cover and let it cook some more. Once the squash is very soft (you may have to add more water until it gets there), add the coconut milk, stir and let it simmer (covered) for a few minutes. Then add the grated fresh ginger root, stir and let it simmer for a few minutes more. And that’s it. Then you can blend it for a totally smooth soup but I now just use a potato masher coz I’m lazy. You end up with a slightly chunky soup but I kind of prefer it this way. 

Also, you can play with the amounts as much as you like. Add more coconut milk, for instance, etc. Sometimes I make more of it and just freeze some.

I love this soup. It’s super easy to make, quick, and it’s delicious! 

[DanteGabriel]

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

So he says. 

Reminds me of my friend who owns a chocolate factory, and how devastated his nephews/nieces were when they visited and it was just an industrial unit with no oompa loompa's. 

My wife seems pretty convinced by the Instagram pics she posts and the quality of food we get there.

 

Edited January 27 by DanteGabriel
Nvm not worth it

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

My wife seems pretty convinced by the Instagram pics she posts and the quality of food we get there.

 

We're visiting an Jaen olive plantation that presses and bottles its own brand when we're in Spain.  Partner was there in November and brought back a couple of bottles of ravishing olive oil from there.  Of course the drought of last summer has harmed olive oil production in both Greece and Spain, from which comes almost all olive oils in whichever country one buys them.

[HexMachina]

17 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

I’m a fairly terrible cook but I have 3 things I can make that turn out nice, and this is one of them.

Squash and coconut milk soup

Ingredients:

squash or pumpkin ~ 1,5kg

onion 2 medium

coconut milk (the proper thick one) 500ml

ginger root 

chilies (optional)

olive oil

salt

 

Cube the squash, chop the onions and grate a little bit of fresh ginger root but you’ll only use the ginger towards the end. 

Pour some olive oil in a pot (low heat), add the onions, the optional chilies and a little salt. Once the onions are translucent, add the cubed squash; put the lid on and stir from time to time so as to not allow it to stick or burn. Once the squash has softened, add a little water and a bit of salt (or not depending on your taste) cover and let it cook some more. Once the squash is very soft (you may have to add more water until it gets there), add the coconut milk, stir and let it simmer (covered) for a few minutes. Then add the grated fresh ginger root, stir and let it simmer for a few minutes more. And that’s it. Then you can blend it for a totally smooth soup but I now just use a potato masher coz I’m lazy. You end up with a slightly chunky soup but I kind of prefer it this way. 

Also, you can play with the amounts as much as you like. Add more coconut milk, for instance, etc. Sometimes I make more of it and just freeze some.

I love this soup. It’s super easy to make, quick, and it’s delicious! 

This sounds really good.

Soups are also a great place the start if you're not a confident cook. They are really easy to do, adjusting flavours is simple and they are generally quick to prepare too.

[Fragile Bird]

For the last 10 years I’ve bought Olive oil sold by the Peace and Justice committee at my church. They mainly bring speakers in and pass around petitions to be signed, but once a month they sell fair trade stuff to the parishioners, chocolate and coffee, spices from the Middle East, occasionally some crafts, and as I said, bottles of olive oil, produced by farmers from the West Bank. Unfortunately bringing in the olive oil has become too complicated for the importer and it’s no longer available. I’ll have to go to main stream suppliers. The Costco Kirkland brand’s okay, as are some of the grocery store brands.

Speaking of pancakes, I came across a stupidly easy recipe that’s quite tasty. Ingredients - two eggs and a banana. I crack open the eggs and beat them well, and then thoroughly smash up the banana and add the eggs. Mix well and make pancakes from the batter. Add cinnamon if you want.

[Durckad]

On 1/27/2024 at 11:29 PM, HexMachina said:

This sounds really good.

Soups are also a great place the start if you're not a confident cook. They are really easy to do, adjusting flavours is simple and they are generally quick to prepare too.

Also it can generally all be cooked in one pot. Fewer dishes to do afterwards!

[HexMachina]

16 hours ago, Durckad said:

Also it can generally all be cooked in one pot. Fewer dishes to do afterwards!

The biggest selling point!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

 

[evievaughan]

Let me just say you're already killing it with your current cooking repertoire. Homemade tomato sauce, beef with broccoli stir fry, lentil soup – that's some next-level stuff!

But if you're craving something new and healthy, how about trying your hand at a veggie stir-fry? It's a no-fail option that's super versatile. Just toss in your favorite veggies, some tofu or tempeh for protein, and a splash of soy sauce or teriyaki for flavor. Easy peasy!

Now, if you're in the mood for a snack or topping for your toast, let me put you onto something game-changing: homemade guacamole with pico de gallo recipe. Trust me, once you try it, you'll never go back to store-bought stuff.

Edited February 26 by evievaughan

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I have cracked it.

I made a "traditional" Bolognese sauce (about 4 kilos) but substituted chicken thighs and chicken stock for the normal ground beef, pork, veal, water.

No garlic. No peppers. No herbs. Just salt and pepper and and a cup of white wine added at the correct time. 

The secret ingredient: time. Low and slow for 5 hours. It has to be 5 hours because the 5th hour is where the magic happens.  

Here's why:

The onion, celery, and carrot that goes in at the beginning completely disintegrates in the sauce. They have to be chopped fine.

Any fat in the meat renders completely. (e.g. lean ground beef is about 20% fat)

The collagen in the meat (the stuff that binds the muscle fibres together) also renders down and converts to gelatin. 

The result of all that destruction is that it thickens the sauce and adds a ton of flavor. I was pretty modest with the S&P this time around and I think I actually over-seasoned it. 

 

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

I know how to make a pretty good Chipotle knock-off meal. It tastes incredible and is really easy to make. I got the recipe from Pinterest. The meal is a steak rice bowl. Although I've only cooked it a couple of times, I think it's pretty good and can stand the test of time. The recipe consists of Basmati rice, steak marinated in Adobo Sauce, pinto beans, pico de gallo, and fresh tomatillo salsa. The salsa is supposed to be a copycat version of Chipotle's red-hot salsa which is my favorite salsa of all time! I'm completely obsessed with Chipotle!

[litechick]

Big Buy-In to an ordinary thing:  this week I made my own version of a Cashew Chicken with Pineapple.  Searching and analyzing a dozen online recipes, chopping and chopping and chopping, cooking the rice, cooking the chicken, cooking the veg, toasting the cashews, making the sauce--I am satisfied with the result but omg, what a lot of work.

I still have about 5 meals of this to eat and I am not unhappy but both the cooking and the eating seems arduous.

The take-home point:  you can make rice in the oven. Lately I am all about letting the oven do the work.  I am comfortable chopping at my desk while watching youtube videos.  Let the oven cook things.  I can't be bothered to tend a pan much and if the success of the dish relies upon me tending a pan on the stove...it will go bad.

Veggie steamer bags FTW!

***I finally bought a proper ceramic baking vessel and it has been amazing!  No more braising in a cake pan for me!

[Tears of Lys]

Tell me about it!  I made seafood lo mein today.  Took us 25 minutes to eat it and around 5 hours to make it.  Same thing - lots of chopping, mincing, slicing, dicing, mixing, etc., etc.  

If there were a decent Asian restaurant near us, I wouldn't do it anymore.  Hate to say it, but in our area the fast-food Asian places are better than the actual restaurants.   Terrible state of affairs.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 9/14/2023 at 7:58 AM, LongRider said:

There is plenty of fraud in the organic market as well.  Certified or not, I pass it by.

For my sins I have the dubious pleasure of unavoidably having to work in the are of organics regulation. Fortunately only on the periphery. My take on it: what may have started out as a genuine desire to make food production more sustainable has turned into a complicated mess of rules many of which have little or no value in achieving sustainability and a corporate scheme to charge premium prices for a label most consumers don't understand.

These days I actively avoid buying organic, except where an organic product happens to be my preferred product for reasons other than it's organicness. The only example that comes to mind right now is my preferred brand of coffee beans because they work best in my espresso machine, and dare I open another can of worms they are fair trade beans.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Had a left over cooking session the other day.

 

Ingredients I decided to work with.

1 bell pepper (green)

2 pieces of Garlic

2 Onions

rice

Added

Chilli peppers

1 tbl spn Tomato paste and mustard

250ml veggie broth

Paprika powder

some thyme

Parsley

Salt and Pepper

 

What do with that.

Boil the rice

Chop the bellpper and finely chop the onions finely. Heat up some oil and fry them for 3 mins. chop the garlic and add it and chillies cover it with paprika powder. Add the mustard and tomato paste. steer a bit. Douse it with the broth. Add the parsley and thyme

The boiled rice should be good now. put to the veggies. Season with salt and pepper. And done.

Turned out better than expected. Wasn't really expecting that much, but the mustard and tomate paste formed a solid base for taste.

Edited February 29 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I just discovered this channel. This guy is amazing.

I haven't tried this, but if you want to impress someone with a nutritious, delicious, home-cooked meal that's relatively straightforward to make, this will do it.