[gwangi32]

Lady Tam, on Sep. 15 2002,10:19, said:

Here is a quick and easy recipe for those not "cooking inclined"

Quick, easy and cheap. †Probably not good for you, but here is:
Scavenger Hunt Lo Mein

1 package Top Ramen (beef or pork works best),
1/2 to 1 cup frozen Peas and Carrots
two table spoons of cooking oil (olive preferable)
one slice of lunchmeat (ham preferable)
(optional) 1 egg

In a small pot heat up the peas and carrots, when they are basically thawed put them in a bowl. †Dice up the meat into little pieces and toss it in with the veggies.

Boil the ramen and drain off the water. †After draining the water add the soup spice package and stir up the noodles. †(For maximum efficiency use the same pot you heated the veggies in)

In a sauce pan of sufficient size heat the oil for three minutes or so, no more than five. †The heat setting should be between low and medium heat and mix the stuff in the bowl with the noodles. †Put the noodles and stuff in the oil and mix gently for three to five minutes and it will be Lo Mein.

You can add other stuff, if you whip the egg and cook it up omelette style, then dice it you can add it with the stuff in the bowl to the noodles. †I like to throw in some finely diced bell peppers. †The more stuff you add the less Peas and Carrots you need.

You get about two adult servings. †Helps if you have something to go with it. †Eggrolls in the oven is a favorite of mine. †But, in keeping with the scavenger hunt whatever you find is fair game. †This has worked well for me on the no one wants to cook and no one wants to go out nights where we fend for ourselves. †Usually takes less than thirty minutes to make. It's not pretty, but it usually tastes good.
† † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † :O

[lstormhammer]

Mmm, that does sound good. Terrible shame I just heard my Aorta scream when I read that.

Oh, well. Tofu is good for you...

--lstormhammer

[lstormhammer]

Tempting, CD.

We'll swap secrets at the Reapercon, Ladystorm....

--lstormhammer

[lstormhammer]

OK, this is what I did tonight, with a few things in the house, it's a dish with meat, so you tree-huggin', granola crunchin', Green Party votin' hippie freaks can meditate for my tree-burning, meat eatin', Republican soul....

--I kid, of course.

I entitle this: "What the hell is this?"

One chicken breast, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 medium-sized potato, diced
2 celery stalks, diced (do you see a theme here?)
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup egg noodles
one 14.5 oz can veggie broth
fresh herbage, whatever's handy.

First, set a pot to boil.

Heat a pan, add a little olive oil.
sautee the chicken, veggies, and herbs until everything looks nice and evenly cooked. (chicken should be browned, onion should be translucent, you should start smelling the carrot and celery.)

Add potato and the broth. Add more broth if needed

Add noodles to the now-boiling water (you remember, the one you set to boil when you began this?)

Make a cornstarch slurry (not much)...
..what's that? You don't know how? Alright, grab that old salsa jar and the lid from the back of your cupboard, the one you swore you'd have a use for, but never did. OK, add a rounded tablespoon of cornstarch in there, and add about the same ammount of water (about 1/8th cup, for those of you who still use measurements). Close the lid (VERY IMPORTANT) you must have a tight seal.
Now that you have that tight seal: Shake the bejeezus out of it. Make that stuff look like milk.

Open jar, pour contents into pan with chicken, veggies, and broth. Stir for a few minutes, remove whole concoxion from heat.

Drain your pasta. Hey! Check it out, now that the pan with your meat and veg is cooling, the broth is turning into gravy. Slick! Add the noodles and stir around, make sure there's plenty of everything mixed in.

NOTE: this should, by now, look like the inside of a chicken pot pie. This is a GOOD THING!!!!

Set the whole thing aside, set the table (this is an important step, as you don't want people burning their mouths, now do you?)

Place pan on table (with a pot holder under it) call your animals over, let feasting begin.


A veggie version of this would omit the chicken, add tofu-based chicken analog, and might be just as good.

--lstormhammer.

[lstormhammer]

So there you are, after feasting on chicken/beef/pork and you're wondering to yourself 'What the heck do I do with all these bones?' Well, never fear, lstormhammer's here!

Basic Chicken Stock

7-8lbs of chicken bones, leave any meat on them.
One large onion
Two carrots
Two stalks celery
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano

First, collect your bones, I have a zip-lock bag in my freezer, just for such things. I make my stock when I have three filled bags.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (again, I don't know the Metric), array your bones in a single layer, and roast them for, oh... 15, 20 minutes. They should look nice and golden brown (and if you had raw bones, this is a good way to cook them).

You can skip this browning stage, but it really does something nice to the broth, so I highly reccomend doing this.

Pull out your biggest pot, prolly called a 'Stock Pot' See? You're going to use it for its intended purpose! Drop all the bones, veggies, and herbs into it, fill with cool tap water (if your tap water comes out brown at first, I highly reccomend using bottled water)

Set this (now heavy, so be careful) pot on your burner, on LOW for about 5 hours. Stirring once in a while. DON'T LET THIS BOIL! Boiling lets the fat molecules mix into the broth, making the broth a: not healthy for you, and b: cloudy and not very appealing. A nice, low simmer is what you want. Just a little steam coming off the top of the liquid.

...5 hours later...

turn off the fire, and take your best 'remove things from hot water' devise (I use my  pasta spoon, the one with all the fingers on it) remove said bones. They have served you well, and may go off to their final resting place: the garbage can

Now: when the liquid calms down (and cools slightly) you'll see all the fat has risen to the surface. While fat=intense flavor, it's not that nessassary for the broth. Spoon it out carefully, and discard. Getting most of it out is great. If you want to get out every little speck, then break out the paper towels, gently let them touch the top of the water, the towels will soak up the last of the fat.

Once that's done, /now/ it's boiling time. A long, slow gentle boil is what you need now, You want to get rid of about 30% of that water. Not that water's bad, but you want the intence flavor, don't you? I thought so....

Note: I have two pots, one is the stock pot, the other for the finishing boil. But one pot will do the trick. I like another for the cooling down process which I'll describe later.

OK: More science. The reason you use bones (besides the flavor they bring) is the cartilege on the bones. After that long, slow boil, they release their glycerine into the water, which is what brings that lip-smackin' goodness to a properly done stock.  

OK, so you've reduced the stock, and it looks great. You've put it in a smaller pot, and let the whole thing cool down to room temp: Stick the smaller pot into the fridge overnight.

In the morning, remove the lid, and take a look inside. Give the pot a little jiggle. Does it move like water, or like chicken Jello? If you did it right, you're in Jello-land.

Take your favorite 1 Cup measuring devise, scoop out two cups worth, and put into a sandwich-sized ziplock bag. Flatten it out slightly, and put into freezer. Alternativly, pour the concoction into ice-cube trays, freeze and put cubes into one big ziplock. (Warning: Label well, I had a friend ruin a perfectly good whiskey sour by putting a beef broth ice-cube into his drink. Don't let this happen to you).

This recipe works well with any kinds of bones you have. Foryou veggie types, use the ends and stems and odds and ends of your veggies, don't just chuck them into the conpost heap, wait until you've extracted the flavor, then let them compost.

Now you're asking yourself "Great, but what the heck will I ever do with 18 cups of chicken broth?" Water replacement. If your rice recipe calls for water, use broth. If you need to make chicken soup, use some of the broth, and it will taste fantastic.

--iron chef lstormhammer

[ladystorm]

Lady Tam, on Oct. 11 2002,8:38, said:

Anybody have a good minastrone soup recipe?

yep. let me find it, its around here somewhere
c

[lstormhammer]

Yes, this is the repository for all things culinary. We've fired off recipes, we've traded family secrets (well, not all of them) and mentioned our favorite cooking shows. So here it is, fire them keyboards up and  give us all things food-related!

--lstormhammer, summoning up the Iron Chefs!

[smokingwreckage]

quick crappy and indestructable: can o tomatos. can o tomato paste. can o mushrooms. combine, add garlic and 1 or maybe 2 stock cubes of choice, simmer, serve over pasta. every single ingredient is imperishable, so you can have this gear hiding at the back of your cupboard for emergencies. tastes better than you think. promise.

[Aryanun]

lstormhammer, on Sep. 17 2002,3:54, said:

Anywho, here's a great tip about steak: Buy it fresh, use salt and pepper only, use a high heat grill, turn it once, remove from heat and let it rest. And you cannot go wrong.

You can also roast up some potatoes at the same time, but they take at least 90 minutes, wrapped in foil, and turned once every 15 minutes, on low heat.

Break out a yummy salad, and you're good to go.

--lstormhammer

Something else that goes good with that...

Texas Style  :cool:

Trim off ends and cut 4-6 Jalapenos in Half
Fill inside with Cream Cheese
Wrap with bacon, use a toothpick to hold bacon in place.
Place on grill and cook until bacon is done.

It's really good. Will yield about 8-12 stuffed jalapenos.

[CripDyke]

I have a completely vegan chocolate cake recipe, but it's not much of a secret. Got it out of a cookbook. Still, I could share...

Anybody need vegan?

[CripDyke]

this stuff sounds fabulous!!! I can't wait to try it!

so many good recipes, so little time....

[lstormhammer]

Hey there. Here's another one from the Cucini D'lstormhammer.

Rotisserie Chicken.

One chicken, fryer. About 3-4 lbs, after plucking and prep.
Salt
pepper
hungarian paprika
thyme
6-8 cups veggie broth
One apple slice
one onion slice
one sprig of Rosemary
butcher's twine

--Special equipment: The ability to spit and turn your chicken, aka Rotisserie-- I happen to have a BBQ with a rotisserie moter attached.

OK, this assumes you have a nice, fresh chicken, and it's ready to go.

Get your largest mixing bowl, place in your kitchen sink. Add (I'm not kidding here) 2 CUPS of salt. and the 8 cups of veg broth , stir until salt dissolves. Add your chicken, making sure it's complely submerged. Leave it like this for an hour.

Science time!

OK, the salt is going to leech out the moisture in the chicken, but don't worry. Out will go all the fluid, then do to osmossis (and keeping a balance between the salinity outside the bird, and inside,) the yummy broth will begin seeping its way back into the chicken, bringing all that flavor back in with it. It's like injecting the meat with flavor, without poking unnessassary holes into it. See? Science is cool when you know the secret.

OK, back to your bird. Drain him off, pat him try. In the cavity of him, put the onion slice, the apple slice, and the rosemary. Those are all great aromatics, and will bring a nice flavor to the dinner table.

OK, trus the bird up with the twine. I usually bind the legs together, make a loop around the 'Pope's nose', and bring that snug with the legs. Now the wings: Flip the bird over, bring the wings behind it, and put one loop of twine at it's elbows, tight enough so it's touching. To that again at the next joint down. This should make the wings go down the back. This way, when you put it on the spit, and turn it, the center of balance is more along the center, as opposed to being front-heavy.

OK, slide the skewer in, push the spikes into the bird and make sure it's not going anywheres. A nice, tight grip is required here. Also, make sure the bird's positioned in the center of the spit. These little double-checks will help you later, trust me.

OK, bird on spit, take it out to the heating place. Bring along all those other spices I mentioned earlier, but didn't tell you what to do with. (you'll need more salt, but not much.)

Oh, and once you're done with the brine, toss it down the sink, there's so much salt in there, you can't use if for anything. I tried once. Eeck.

Right, begin your bird to spinning, and them begin adding all those spices. You want a nice, even coat of all the spices, but not too much, it's for two reasons: it looks good when you're done, and it does bring spice to the meat. (not that you'll need it, you did the brining, remember?

OK, a medium-low heat for 90 minutes, checking every 30 to make sure all is well with it. Now: Even though you're only going to open the lid every 30 is no excuse to wander off and go play Volleyball. Bring a book along, or if you have company, bring them out and have a conversation nearby the fire. The weather's finally cooling down in my neighborhood, so spending time outside doesn't sound insane. Bring a timer so you can know when it's time.

Bring a thermometer with you. At the end of 90, the thigh meat should be a toasty 180 degrees or so (I don't know the metric, sorry) and everything should look GBD (Golden, Brown, Delicious). Plate the beast, and bring it inside.

It needs to rest for 10 minutes or so (15 is better, IMHO) but if you're like me, you've got poachers who will nibble at the bird before hand. I have sharp knives, and have told my family I will use them. Use some aluminium tented over the top, it doesn't stop the die-hard poachers, but will deter the casual ones. The die-hards you've hopefully set to doing something else. Even if it's just handing them a beer and telling them to go. (you'd be suprised how well this works)

OK, carve that badboy up however you do. I tend to make 6 or so pieces (leg/thigh combo, wings on their own, and two breast pieces) You could slice up the breastmeat as you wish, but that's only if you have a lot of people who like the breastmeat.

--Enjoy! And don't hesitate to experiment with what spices you use!

--lstormhammer

[lstormhammer]

Mmm, Weather's cooling down. Time to break out my favorite

Chow-DAH! Say it, frenchy! Chow-DAH!

Shau-Der.

Mmm, clam chowder on a cold day. Sounds like a plan and a half.

--lstormhammer

[Lady Tam]

Here is a quick and easy recipe for those not "cooking inclined" A fast way to make a London Broil Flank Steak. You want to score your meat on one side making a "checker baord like pattern. Let marinate for half an hour, (but longer is better!) in a Italian dressing/white wine combination. This should be the equivalent of 1/4 white wine to a cp of Italian dressing, but I prefer to go closer to a 50-50 mix. Set oven to broil and adjust your rack accordingly and cook. Watch closely to prevent over cooking. This is a quick way to make this dish, that taste good and will make people think you spent all day fixing it!
Lady Tam

[CripDyke]

There is an _intensity_ to the flavor of most natural cheeses that the fake stuff will never match, so your lasagna comes out a little more bland than you would expect. You can anticipate & compensate, but if you're not ready for it, it can be a little disappointing. On the other hand, the texture is nearly perfect! People eating your lasagna will maybe notice that it's mild but they won't quite be able to figure out why...

The (fake) cheese i use melts very well, but only a few of them do. If you get a cheese that doesn't melt well (the rice cheeses are your best bet actually, but if you find an almond cheese that melts well the flavor will be better - avoid the soy cheese, they're all disgusting as far as I can tell) it will be a little more crumbly than usual, won't hang together quite as well, but really, the texture is almost the same & the flavor is great from all the other stuff in the lasagna. It just comes out a little mild, without the distinctive sour cheese tang.



As far as the baking substitute:

I would never cook with white flower again. In this case the taste is _far superior_ to the taste of cookies/ breads/ etc baked with the bland stuff. It truly does make it healthier _and_more delicious without sacrificing anything in terms of texture, rise, etc. There is no reason to go back to white. I swear by it!